Beyond the Cemetery Gates
by SC Girl
Summary: The disease went unnoticed by the public and was dismissed by the healthcare professionals. In one night it spread like wildfire. Now two nurses are trying to survive the death trap their hospital has become and find a safe haven.
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: Hi everyone. This story is strictly the dead and people surviving much like many of the stories posted in this section of FFN. I guess just read and review and tell me what you think. I do not own Dawn of the Dead or anything else from the movies. I do own Tessa and Kyra.**_

**June 23****rd****2011. **

**A rural area just outside of Omaha.**

I sat next to his body holding his hand tightly in mine. I rocked back and forth letting the tears stream out of my eyes. I could hear myself mumbling but I felt somehow like I was hearing someone else's voice. I tried desperately to make this plea to god count for something. So that maybe he would grant me this one request.

"Please god not today".

I could feel his grip begin to loosen on my hand.

"Please god I would trade anything!"

I sobbed trying to gulp oxygen and speak all at the same time.

I gripped his hand harder and could feel the temperature drop in his skin.

"I can fix him god, just give me more time. Please God!"

I could hear him drawing his last breath. I looked down at his body as it began to convulse. His eyes were wide with pain and fear as he struggled to stay alive. I knew I had to drop his hand, yet I could not bring myself to do it. I wanted to hold on just a little longer. Like somehow if I did I could make a trade and take his pain from him. I looked down at his body his skin had now turned a gray ashen color. I watched as his eyes rolled back into his head, and the grip on my hand completely loosen leaving his hand limp in mine. I held his hand for what seemed like hours. I could hear people around me telling me to let go, but their shouts sounded distant to me. Suddenly I felt him grip my hand like it was in a vice. I turned to see his eyes pop open. It took a few seconds for him to get up. He quickly lunged at me, but I was quicker. I had my gun in my hand and pointed at his head. As I began to squeeze the trigger I heard my voice scream out.

I'm sorry! OH god I'm so sorry!"

##############################################################################

**October 14****th**** 2009**

I shut my eyes for a moment breathing deeply inhaling the sterile scent of the hospital. I felt a tap on my shoulder and my eyes unwillingly opened. In front of me the computer screen was bright causing me to look away. I looked up to see one of my co-workers and good friends staring down at me grinning. I couldn't help but form a weak smile. Kyra always had a smile on and seemed to be able to find goodness in even the worst of situations.

"Are you sleeping on the job?!" She flashed me a toothy smile, and sat down in the rolling chair next to me.

"UGH! No I'm just exhausted from working two back to back double shifts. Not that I mind the extra money but maybe they could ask somebody else tonight." I looked over to see that Kyra had already started on her patients files for the next shift. She always seemed to have this amazing knack for multi tasking.

"It could be worse you know. We could be down in emerge. Those poor bastards get stuck working doubles every day. It's only been this week that our unit has been taking on a lot of doubles. You know two of the girls are out on vacation and the other two are out on sick leave. When were not at the bottom of the food chain we might get a choice about our hours. Besides, Lori hasn't come up to see us yet".

As Kyra said that I was not even remotely surprised when around the corner came Lori. I could see the chart in her hand and the look of annoyance in her eyes.

"Speak of the devil." I rolled my eyes at Kyra and returned my gaze to my computer hoping Lori would pass by us. I could see from my peripheral vision that she was slowing down and walking over to the nurse's station.

"Hello Ladies. I think you both know why I'm here. I actually need the both of you to stay tonight for the 11pm-7am shift. I know you're both excited. You get break in half an hour. Just do me a favor and try and grab half an hour sleep and some coffee into you at some point tonight." I could see Lori was trying to be both sarcastic and sympathetic all at the same time.

I rubbed my eyes to drive the point home that I was dead tired. "Who called in tonight?" It had been a strange week. Normally our unit had almost twenty nurses on staff usually to manage all three shifts, but for whatever reason this week our numbers had shrunk to just twelve.

"Susie called in saying something about being mugged and bitten. I guess she was beat up pretty bad. We've been trying to call Helen for the last hour, but she hasn't answered. Our calls just keep going straight to her voice mail. She had promised to come in early and help me do the stock and some extra paper work." I could sense Lori seemed to be trying to hide worry in her voice.

I looked up at Lori grabbing the bridge of my nose and closing my eyes. "Don't worry Lori. Helen probably has some issue with one of her kids. I mean what person want wouldn't leave their children to come to the oasis that is the psych unit for eight solid hours." I looked up to see Lori giving me a disapproving look about my clearly inappropriate sarcasm.

"I'll deal with you later Tessa". Lori warned me as she walked away.

I looked over at Kyra who was clearly trying to hide her laughter. We finally both broke down and began to laugh, but suddenly our laughter was cut short. The loud startling sound of the panic alarm had been sounded. Kyra and I both ran to see which room the alarm had been sounded from. Seconds later Lori was right behind us.

"Tess what room is that?" Lori said all business now.

I looked at her for a second trying to remember the number. "Its room 516, I think that is Carrie's patient." I said stumbling over my words.

We all quickly ran down the hall snapping on gloves as we went. I looked over at Kyra who had a questioning look in her eye.

"Hey Tessa wasn't Carrie's patient the one who had attacked his wife and bit her finger off?"

"Shit that's the guy." I said as we neared the room. I remembered helping Carrie set the man up in the room. He was definitely a total nut job.

Lori was the first there to look through the window of the locked door. In the distance I could see two other nurses running towards us. Kyra was punching in the code to the door. I looked over Lori's shoulder to see what was going on in the room. I began to feel my stomach lurch as I saw what was happening. Carrie a petite woman was pounding frantically on her patient, but her attempts were in vain. I could see the flesh had been ripped away from her upper arm to reveal a small portion of her humerus bone.

Finally I heard the familiar sound of the code going through and the door popped open. Lori was the first to rush in grabbing the man's arm. Kyra and I followed along both of us grabbing the man's other arm and pulling him off of Carrie.

"Get fucking security in here now!" I screamed at one of the other nurses who were struggling to hold down the man's feet.

"Fuck!" I heard Kyra say as she was lost her grip on the man's arm and was thrown against the other bed in the semi private room. I turned my attention quickly back the struggling man that was somehow managing to overpower five people. I could see head craning over so his teeth could snap at Lori. I tightened my grip on the man's arm and forced him down to the ground.

Finally after what seemed like hours security came in. I turned my head away just as one of the security guards smashed the man in the head with a baton. I looked down to see that he was unconscious. We lifted the man back into bed and restrained him. As I finished tying the last restraint I noticed something funny. I thought my eyes had been playing tricks on me but I was sure the man stopped breathing. I stood still for a moment looking down at him. I turned to get Lori when suddenly I heard the familiar sound of the restraints hitting the bed rails. The man was fighting the restraints, his teeth snapping towards me. I stepped back not wanting to be in the room anymore. I walked backwards slowly leaving along with Lori and the other nurses.

Finally I heard the door shut behind me and the lock code being punched in. I turned to see Kyra standing there with some gauze on her forehead. I walked over and lifted the gauze off her head. I could see a deep ugly gash on her forehead. I returned the gauze to her head as the blood started to leak out onto her ebony skin and down onto her light pink scrub top.

We quickly walked back to the nurse's station. I sat Kyra down and began to search for the proper equipment to start stitching up her forehead. As I searched I heard Lori's voice call out. "The people from the neuro unit have been up stealing our stuff again. You two will have to go down to the ER."

"Perfect". I mumbled under my breath. I grabbed Kyra's arm and headed for the elevator. The elevator was packed with different people, mostly medical staff and a few visitors leaving for the night. Seconds later we reached the ER. As we stepped out I was shocked to see the sheer volume of people standing in the waiting area. I looked around realizing that it was standing room only. We walked up to the triage desk and the young nurse working it waved us through.

As we entered the exam area looking for a free room, I could see that almost every bed was taken. I sat Kyra down on a stool and proceeded to look for the proper equipment to sew the cut on her head shut. As I searched it was then that I heard a familiar voice. I closed my eyes hoping he would just go away. I counted to three and then turned. To my horror there behind me stood my ex.

"Hi Tessa, how is work tonight?" He looked down at me grinning. I could see he had a stretcher next to him. Clearly he was looking for a place to unload his patient. "I know you've missed me Tessa." He leaned in a little closer to me smiling his usual dirt bag smile.

"With every bullet so far." I mumbled under my breath.

There was a long pause before I decided to speak. I hoped with the brief hello might give him the inclination to leave. "Work is fine Chris. What do you want?" I said dryly not trying to hide the distain in my voice.

"I was just trying to have a conversation with an **old** friend." I could hear him emphasize the "old" part. _Jesus I was a year younger then that asshole. Plus 25 isn't old last time I checked._

"Chris we're not friends. You're still a douche bag and I still can't stand the sight of you. I'm fairly certain you don't realize how much of a douche bag you truly are. However, I think god might have provided you with an informative pamphlet about the topic when you were born. Perhaps you should take the time to read it and let me get back to stitching my friend's head wound shut." I turned my back on him and began to stitch up Kyra's head.

"I just wanted to update you on Sugar. I found her a nice home on Detroit's west side. He paid really well. I think you know who I'm talking about. I mean if you really want her you could always buy her back. That is if he is willing to sell. He said that she would do really well in the fights with a little training. I think I might even go to one of those fights. I could double the money I earned selling her."

I felt myself begin to grind my teeth. Thoughts of Sugar as a puppy and seeing her grow up flashed in my mind. "You had no fucking right to sell her you son of bitch! She was my dog not yours."

"Honey, I paid for her, so I can do whatever the fuck I want." I could hear him say in a low voice.

"Just get the hell away from me Chris. I can't wait until karma comes back and bites you in the ass!" I snapped at Chris. I turned my head back to Kyra and the task of sewing her wound shut. It took several moments until I heard the sound of the stretcher moving away from me and Kyra. I breathed a sigh of relief. Tonight was shaping up to be one hell of a night. I pulled the final stitch closed and cut the wire.

Kyra began to tape a piece of gauze onto her head to soak up the remaining blood. She leaned back and put her arms out on the counter behind her. She gave me a disapproving look. I could tell I was about to get a lecture about watching my temper.

"Honey you need to relax. Go easy on the guy. We both know god is keeping score of what that asshole is doing here on earth. Let Jesus take care of things for a change."

I snapped off the rubber gloves I had been wearing and turned back to Kyra. "It's just a little hard sometimes Kyra. I mean the guy slept with an 18yrs drunk college skank, stole money from me and now has just sold my dog to some asshole that fights pit bulls. It's a miracle I haven't tried to shoot him yet!" I stopped for a moment and there was a long awkward silence. I could feel myself calming down. I looked over towards Kyra she seemed to be preoccupied in the examing room across the hall. "Kyra I'm sorry. I shouldn't let this stuff get to me so much."

"It's alright, but you need to let go of all this stuff with Chris. The universe has a way of sorting things out." She gave me a quick smile and stood up from the stool. I followed her into the hall and turned our attention to the other room.

In the examing room across from us I could see several security guards, doctors and nurses trying to restrain a patient. I looked at the young woman on the table struggling. She seemed to be the gray and ashen appearance to her skin, and her hair was messed up and caked in blood. She snapped at the nurse closest to her. At the side of her torso I could see a large hole at the side. Several of her ribs jutted out, as if someone had kept punching at her side to break through. I could see small fragments of her liver leaking out. I stood for a moment memorized at the fact the woman was even still alive. Finally I reached over and grabbed Kyra's arm. I didn't want to watch the strange woman struggle with the ER staff anymore. I knew she would be upstairs on the psych unit soon enough.

We passed the triage nurse on the way out and I gave a quick wave. I could see she looked displeased. I could hear Kyra mumble the words sweet Jesus under her breath. It wasn't until I looked into the crowded waiting room and realized why she was upset. I could see that the numbers in the waiting room had nearly doubled since I had gone to stitch up Kyra.

We began to make our way through the waiting room. We did our best to squeeze by the people. It seemed so odd that the majority of the people all seemed to have various types of bite wounds. I shook the thought out of my mind as merely a coincidence. I heard someone begin to scream at me and suddenly I felt a hand lock around my forearm. "You stupid bitch help me! What are you too good to help the poor people around here!?" I could see the woman had gauze over her eye, and in her other arm she held a baby wrapped tightly in a blanket. I could see a small blood stain seeping through the child's blanket. I shuddered and suddenly heard Kyra snap.

"Get your hands off her pasty ass!" She snapped at the woman who seemed shocked that a nurse would yell at her. "Everyone is going to get treated tonight, but as you can see the ER is a little busy. Go see the triage nurse again about your baby. Maybe she can get you to an examing room in the back." I could see Kyra was trying to watch the tone of her voice as she spoke to the woman. I could see Kyra was struggling to speak to the woman calmly.

"Don't get me started on you." The woman snapped at Kyra as she began to swing her hand in attempt to slap her.

Kyra was quick and caught the woman's forearm in mid air. She looked at the woman with a look that would have sent anyone packing. "Don't get me started on you honey, and check your attitude." Kyra quickly forced the woman's arm back to her and let it go. We started to walk away when suddenly we heard the woman shout at us. "Hey bitch!". The woman flung her head back and spit at us. I quickly grabbed Kyra as she began to lunge at the woman. I dragged her back to the ER doors that faced outside towards the parking area for the ambulances and the entrance to the general public.

"Kyra relax, I need you to be calm. There's something very wrong in the universe when I'm the voice of reason in our friendship." Kyra turned still looking pissed but gave a quick nod that she knew I was right.

I suddenly felt a cold gust of wind hit me from the open doors of the entrance. I looked out to see one ambulance pull away into the autumn night. Several leaves danced after it in the wind. In the distance I could make out several shapes walking near the tall oak trees that lined the landscaping just outside the doors. I stood for a moment watching the figures in the spooky fading light of dusk, until they finally reached me. They all drifted in past me, most were in a daze. My view was suddenly blocked by another ambulance quickly pulling up. The paramedics jumped out and began to unload their patient. As they wheeled in the elderly man I could see he also had the same bite marks as everyone else. Something in the pit of my stomach told me there was something very wrong. Another gust of cold wind rushed in and hit me, but it wasn't the wind that sent a shiver up my spine.


	2. Dead Calm

_**A/N:**__** Here's the second chapter. As always read and review. This chapter should have a little more action in it. I know the first chapter was kind of slow to get going. Also I do not own the movie Dawn of the dead or any of its characters however Tessa, Kyra and McCree are mine.**_

After the incident down in emerge I couldn't help but feel uneasy for the rest of my shift. I walked down the halls looking into the patient's rooms that I was assigned. Ahead of me down the hall was a large window that faced the city. It was nearly 0530 in the morning and it was still quite dark out. All things considered the rest of the night had been very peaceful with the exception of the attack on Carrie. I wondered if the man who had attacked her was suffering from a psychotic episode or was there something more to his violent attack. It just didn't seem to add up. I dreaded having to go into the room to try and sedate him. A job that had before only required maybe two people now needed four. I walked over to the door and looked in. The man was to be sleeping and a sense of relief washed over me. As I stared at the man my thoughts suddenly drifted to Carrie. Had anyone called her family or fiancé? Had they been able to repair the severe damage done to her arm? I looked away from the man and decided that I would again try and call the surgical unit to see how she was doing. I had one last room to check before I returned to the nurses' station.

I made my way to the final door to look in. I shuddered at the thought of dealing with this final patient. I looked into to see that my patient was up already. He was doing pushups and didn't seem to notice me watching him. Suddenly his head shot up and he stood up quickly. He padded towards the door. As always he gave me his usual thousand yard stare. I felt the tension building in my stomach. I had to deal with prison inmates before, but this one had truly frightened me. He had arrived as a detox patient three weeks earlier. It had been a violent three weeks of hallucinations, screaming and pain. Almost every day had been a fight to keep him calm. It was only this week they had gone down to one guard instead of two. He walked over to the window and leaned on the door so I could see the good side of his face. I could feel his eyes burning into me. I studied his face for a moment. The hidden part of his face had a large burn scar, but by some miracle his eye had remained intact. The undamaged side of his face showed that he was still young. I remember his file saying he was 29, but his eyes carried the look of somebody that had lived two lifetimes. I felt like he was pulling me in, daring me to imagine the horrors he had caused. The realization that this man had been in prison for murder was always in the back of my mind. My hand shakily moved toward the intercom so I could speak with him.

"How are we this morning ?" I asked trying to hide my nervous tone.

"I'm fine no hallucinations or shakes this morning, if that's what you're wondering." His eyes stayed focused on me. I suddenly felt the urge to look anyway.

"Good, I'm glad to hear that. If you need anything let us know." I began to walk away when suddenly I heard the intercom go.

"Hey wait" he said. His voice was gentler now then it was before. He seemed to be wanting to say something but struggled. Finally he spoke again. His demeanor more relaxed. "What's for breakfast?"

"The hospital's version of scrambled eggs, may god help you if you eat them. You're a braver soul then me." I said trying to be respectful but desperately needing something to cut the tension. I let the intercom button go and began to walk away, when suddenly I heard him call out my name this time. I started to feel irritated. I knew inmates liked to play games with nurses, but today was not the day to pull that business with me. I turned back preparing to deal with McCree .

"Hey, where's the fat fuck who was supposed to be watching me. He left at three and hasn't come back." He shot out angrily but with some satisfaction. I looked around realizing for the first time that the guard hadn't been around in quite awhile. I turned back to McCree.

"I'll check to see what's going on." I said trying not to hide the exhaustion in my face and voice. I began to walk away when I heard the intercom go again.

"Tessa," I heard McCree's voice softly say. "Sorry about the language, my apologies." I was surprised at the sincerity in his voice. Normally when he swore at me the guards were present. He seemed to take great pleasure in saying the dirtiest things possible to all the nurses and making them feel on edge. It was almost shocking that he could carry on a conversation without saying something dirty or just plain evil. I walked back over to his door. I gave him a respectful quick nod which he returned and I walked away.

I walked over to the nursing station to see that the rest of the nurses had started on their paper work before shift change. They all looked subdued; many had worried looks on their faces. I stood for a moment wondering who would call in sick tonight. I walked over to sit next to Kyra who yawned and took a quick sip of her tea. I nudged her arm with my elbow.

"Hey, have you heard anything on Carrie yet?" She shook her head and continued to work. I thought about the missing guard. My suspicions were that perhaps the guard had gone down to emerge to get coffee and see if he could work his charms on some of the emerge nurses. I had to laugh at the thought. He had unsuccessfully tried to as he put it "work his magic" on Kyra. However she had shot him down and had given him a lecture on adultery being a sin. She had smacked his left hand and told him that she was not blind and had seen his wedding band. A smile cracked on my face every time he walked by her and couldn't look at her. "What about the guard? McCree said that he left at three to go get coffee." Kyra's head immediately shot up.

"You know what's funny; I did see him punch in the code for the elevator. You know what else is strange. I haven't heard from any other unit in the hospital tonight. I thought with emerge the way it was we were going get a lot of people on our floor tonight. I called the surgical unit an hour ago and no one answered." Kyra picked up the phone and dialed the number to the surgical floor. I could hear it ringing and then going straight to voice mail.

"Why the hell would they not pick up? There's always supposed to be someone at the desk. I think we should call around see if anyone has heard anything. Last night was a real strange night. Kyra you call cardiac, burn unit and peds. I'll take OB, emerge and neuro, something doesn't feel right." It took a good ten minutes but the result was the same. Each floor for whatever reason didn't answer. I sat for a moment looking at Kyra. Each of us seemed to be trying to work out the variables in our head. It wasn't unusual to not see any other nurses from other units on our floor. We were a lock down unit which meant all stairwell doors and elevators were locked not to mention patient's rooms. Plus although most nurses wouldn't admit it, most were afraid to come to our floor. Most of the time the other staff in the hospital were content to just call, but tonight the phone had been dead silent. I decided to at least try neuro one last time.

I could hear the phone ringing when finally someone picked up.

"Hello, who's this?" the nurse on the other end sounded strange as if she had been crying. As she spoke her voice seemed to shake.

"This is Tessa from psych. What's going on? You guys have been quiet all night long, along with every other unit." I said trying to hide my dislike for the neuro nurses.

"Please! I can't talk to loud our they'll hear me." The woman sobbed and her last few words were almost incomprehensible.

"Stop fucking around you guys. We were just wondering if you guys admitted a lot of people tonight. The emerge was standing room only last night." I said half annoyed.

"We did take on a lot of people but something was very wrong!"The woman was openly sobbing now and sniffling.

I turned back to Kyra holding the phone up so all the girls could say something. "Hey, Kyra can you believe this neuro had to take on some patients and actually do some work for a change!" I said in a whinny voice.

"Please listen you don't understand!" The nurse screamed into the phone terror in her voice. "It started with a whole bunch of bite patients. They came up from emerge. The doctors there thought it was some kind of new virus. So they admitted these people to be monitored over night, until they could figure out what to do with them. They just assumed the psychotic episodes were caused by the disease. That's why they didn't send them up to your floor. They believed that it was all biological and not caused by emotional issues. They wanted to rule out all the different viral causes first before considering the mental causes. There were just so many we started sending them up to other floors. Cardiac, the burn unit, oh god we even took some of the child bite victims up to peds. At first they were normal but then they started attacking random people. We restrained a few at first but then it started to get out of hand. It wasn't until Doctor Shamisa went in to check on one of these patients, when things got fucked! He was bent over one old woman and out of the blue she leaned up so fast and bit his neck. He was bleeding everywhere. One of the other nurses tried to go help him but a minute later he began to attack her. I ran out of the room there was blood everywhere." The woman on the other line was in hysterics now. "All of a sudden the bite victims that hadn't been restrained were in the halls. They were attacking people. They gathered around them like a pack of rabid dogs just tearing people apart. They didn't care who they attacked. And the people they attacked. I thought they were dead, most lost so much blood or suffered such severe trauma I thought it was impossible to survive. I thought for sure they had died, but they just got back up and started attacking other people. I've been hiding for two hours. I think those things have just been busy. I can't even believe it now, but I think they were eating the people they killed."

"Wow you ladies on neuro are amazing! That is just one hell of a story. I tip my hat to you ladies for coming up with that in only eight hours. Seriously you expect us to believe that story. At least you answered my question, so you guys did have a busy night." I said not trying to hide my sarcasm.

"Look you stupid fucking bitch! This is not a fucking joke! There are people sick with some sort of a disease that is making them eat other people! I don't know how much more fucking clear I can be." She screamed with everything she was worth at me. Suddenly her tone changed from one of anger to one of pure fear. "Oh god there here! Oh Jesus I don't want to die…."

All that followed was her bone chilling scream. To this day I don't know why I stayed on the line. It seemed like she screamed for hours and the sounds that followed afterwards I can't even describe. It's not like in the movies when the line goes dead. I heard everything the bones being broken, the flesh being torn and the final painful scream. All of it will haunt me till the day I die. I felt Kyra grab the receiver and pull it away from my ear and slam it down. I looked at her and something inside the pit of my stomach made me feel like what I had just heard was all real.

"Kyra that was just weird. I can't even explain it." I said to her trying to figure out whether the girl on the other line was lying or if she was telling the truth. In the corner of my eye I could see that Lori had been watching us. I turned and watched her get up from her seat and walk over.

"Ladies I see its social hour over here. Look I want to go home just as bad as the rest of you, but we still have to get the paper work done before the next shift comes in. So here is what I am going to do. I'm done my work so I will go upstairs and find out about Carrie. Then I will go to the neuro floor and give them shit for distracting you my nurses from their jobs. Finally I will go down to the emerge and find out if we are going to get a lot of people in tonight. If you two ladies had finished your work instead of messing around with the neuro floor, then you two could fuck the dog and get paid for it too. If you will excuse me I'm going to go do nothing but drink coffee for the next forty five minutes."

I turned to look at Kyra and rolled my eyes as Lori walked away. I watched her walk to the elevator where she punched in the code. I turned back to my paper work for a moment, but looked up when the bell chimed as the elevator hit our floor. As I watched I hoped Lori would take her sweet time downstairs. I could see Lori step forward to go into the elevator, but then stop and step back. I noticed McCree's guard step out. At first I assumed he was drunk from the way he moved. It seemed slow and unsteady. Lori stood in her spot frozen for some reason. Then out of nowhere he lunged at her. I could see he bit down into her check ripping away a huge chunk of flesh. I stood up pushing the chair back with some much force it hit the nurses behind me. I reached over and yanked Kyra up. We both stood eyes wide. Lori was screaming but we didn't seem to hear it. Then as her screams got louder more people started coming out of the elevator. I counted at least ten. They swarmed her and began pulling at her. I watched one rip her arm off. I could see many of these people had some sort of ugly trauma to their body. Some had no face. Others seemed to have their internal organs poking out of strange holes in their torsos. Suddenly I felt Kyra pulling me. We began to run down the hall, passing one of the two sets of fire doors that divided up the floor.

"What the fuck was that!" I screeched at Kyra, I could feel myself start to panic.

"I don't think that nurse was lying." I could see that Kyra was shaking as she spoke.

After doing the fastest sprint of my life we finally reached the end of the hallway. I looked out to the window at the end of the hall, seeing that it was slowly getting lighter outside. Something inside me told me to go closer to the window. Slowly I walked and looked out. I could see one of the main roads that went by the hospital along with a glimpse of the parking lot. As I looked below I felt myself stop breathing for a second. I reached over and pulled Kyra so she stood next to me. As we stood there we could not believe what we were seeing. Cars were scattered everywhere on the road. Many had swerved and crashed in an attempt to not hit fleeing pedestrians. I could see a police car being swarmed. Seconds later I watched as the officer pull his gun and try and fire out the window. The things began to try and shove their hands in the small open part of the window. They quickly broke the glass and pulled the officer out. At that point I turned my head knowing I would vomit if I watched. Suddenly I realized that something was very wrong and deep down although I did not want to admit it. I had the distinct feeling the police weren't coming to save us. I looked down the hall and I knew what I had to do. I looked up at Kyra and as if reading my mind she grabbed my arm firmly.

"No, you aren't going to do this. One of the other girls probably already did it." I could feel her grip tighten on my arm.

I pulled my arm away forcefully and looked her dead in the eye. "Kyra, we would have heard the doors pop if they did. If the police or fire isn't coming then all these people are going to die. I have to pop the doors."

"And if you do pop the doors then we have a bunch of mentally unstable people running around on this floor. Who could either A) hurt us or kill us or B) they could go and get torn up by those things." Kyra stood back for a moment crossing her arms defensively as if she were trying to discipline a child.

"Kyra, what if it's like this all over the city? What if the police can't handle this problem? What if the police, fire or even the military never come? Those people will be locked in their rooms starving to death. Do you really want that on your conscious? Because I know that if I die, which from the looks of things could be very soon. I sure as hell don't want to answer for why I left a bunch of people to die locked in hospital. I'm popping the doors!" I turned away and began to run.

I could feel my heart rate increase and my stomach begin to churn as I approached the first set of fire doors. I looked through the first set of small doors to see if any of those things were walking around. So far things were looking good. I pushed open the door slowly and began to make my way down the hall. I looked everywhere trying to stay as alert as possible. I turned the corner finally to go to the front desk. I slowly walked behind the nurses' station. Near the elevators I could see those things were still preoccupied with Lori's body. I felt myself gage as I watched. I turned my attention to the back room where our drugs were kept. I quickly located the key pad to punch in the code for the doors. As I punched in the numbers it occurred to me that the beeping noise from the buttons would alter the strange creatures to my presence. I had just hit the last button and heard the doors pop when one of the things rounded the corner and began to walk into the room. I felt frozen in place as I watched one of the things slowly makes its way into the room. I could feel my heart pounding and tears welling up in my eyes. As it began to reach for me something in me snapped. I looked over to see the nurse on wheels next to me. I quickly grabbed the cart and pushed it into the creature knocking it down. I began to run but as I did it grabbed my leg. I could feel it was trying to pull my foot towards its mouth. I quickly turned and gave a swift kick to its face. It wasn't much but it was enough for it to let go of my foot.

I began to run down the hall. I was sucking in huge amounts of air as I ran. I could feel my longs burning and my eyes beginning to water. As I ran I could see some patients had begun to wander out into the hall. I looked at them and screamed. "Get the fuck off this floor and out of this hospital now, for the love of god. RUN!" I hit the first set of fire doors so hard that I tripped and fell down. I pushed myself back up and ran to the spot I left Kyra. It all felt like a terrible nightmare. As soon as I arrived I realized Kyra was gone. I looked around peaking into patients rooms, just praying I would find her. At this point I could feel the tears rolling down my face. I started to run down the halls again. I could hear the screaming. I wasn't sure if it was the patients or my fellow nurses. I began to cry even harder as images of the horror and pain these people were feeling flooded my mind. I doubled back and went through the fire doors again.

I ran blindly not realizing were I was going or what I would do. As I neared the nurse's desk I didn't look to see that one of the patient's doors was open. Two arms quickly shot out of the room and wrapped around my waist. I felt myself be pulled into the room. The door slammed shut quickly. I looked up to see McCree staring down at me. I started to scream when he quickly covered my mouth with his hand. I felt his forearm push me up against a wall. I could feel McCree pushing up against me. He moved his head close to mine and whispered into my ear. "Stay quiet and stay still or this is going to turn out badly for the both of us."


	3. uneasy alliance

_**A/N:**_** Originally I had planned on only having the story done through Tessa's POV only. However I started toying with the idea of what McCree was seeing and feeling during these events. So I decided chapter three would be based on his POV. I think from this point on I will be doing my chapters from both Tessa's and McCree's POV. Thank you to everyone who has stopped and taken the time to read BCG. Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from Dawn of the dead. I do however own Tessa, McCree and Kyra.**

I knew something wasn't right tonight. When you do time in a maximum security prison for five years, you catch on real quick when something is about to go down. Tonight was no different. I had sensed something was wrong all night. This feeling was so strong it dragged me out of a dead sleep. The feeling was hard to describe at first. It reminded of me the first few weeks I had spent in prison. I had a lot of sleepless nights back then. I knew someone was coming for me. It was the feeling of knowing that death was coming but you had to beat it to the punch. It was a mixture of being anxious and fearful. Those were the feelings I had the night my gang decided it was time for me to make my bones. Now five years later those feelings had suddenly come out of nowhere again.

I paced my room for what seemed like hours just trying to figure out what was going on. I caught a few glimpses outside the window on my door, but I didn't see much. It wasn't until I saw all the nurses scramble for some alarm. That's when I finally got my first glimpse of what was to come.

Suddenly I saw a bunch of security and nurses drag this one nurse out. She looked almost dead. Half her arm was missing and from what I saw she was losing a lot of blood. I've seen people stabbed and cut and I've done it to a few people myself to know when someone is at the end of the line. This broad was definitely there. After that things got quiet, way too quiet.

I didn't bother asking the fat fuck who was assigned to guard me. What was the point? He sure as hell wouldn't tell me anything. As far as he was concerned I was another babysitting job. To him I was some asshole doing life and getting a free vacation by going through detox. My sentence meant that I was nothing but a worthless piece of shit in his eyes and everyone else's. As far as he was concerned I was a man becoming a little more institutionalized each day and a little bit more like an animal with every passing minute.

There was no point in talking to the nurses either. They were decent to me, but I wasn't a fool. I could smell their fear and disgust and the animal inside of me loved it. That's the funny thing about prison, you never get a choice. Whether you like it or not, you become a predator or you become the kill. I didn't want to be a predator though, but prison is predatory. So I did what was natural to me, I became the predator. The nurses looked at me the same way the rest of the society did; they saw a biker, a murderer and a convict. I had prison tattoos and burn scars on my face and part of my upper body, and that made them look at me as even more of a monster. The truth was I wasn't a monster at least not at this point in my life. Maybe in the past I was, but at the moment I was looking at to hurt anyone. It was the first time in my life my mind felt clear, and I didn't want to give that up. It was the first time in a long time I was sober, but people never saw the importance of that. People never appreciated what it took to gain a small victory. They wanted the big bang, the miracle; they wanted a bullshit story of triumph that was fit for Oprah. By nature people aren't willing to look past their first impression. To most people prisons meant bad jokes and the basic theory of out of sight out of mind. When people see prisons they see frightening looking men with tattoos and high fences, barbed wire and men in towers with guns. What most people don't see is a wasteland of mentally ill, drug addicted and sane men with all the potential in this world slowly going insane. People never saw or wanted to see the violence, the rape the endless cycle of boredom. They call it corrections rather than prison these days. It was such a fucking joke. A guard laughed and told me his theory on corrections once. He told me people only correct themselves inside prison if they want to be corrected. I had never heard a truer statement. At the moment I wasn't even sure if I wanted to be corrected. I had life with the chance of parole, so there always was a chance I could change. The main question to be answered was. What was the point of changing for a world that didn't want me?

The nurses despite their pleasant professional attitude were no different. Tonight the nurses were helping me though without even realizing it. Unlike prison guards the nurses didn't totally hide their emotions. Their body language always spoke volumes. I watched them constantly, every move they made. I could tell if they were running on no sleep or if they were having a good or bad day. Fuck I could even tell if they had gotten laid before their shift. I knew how to read people and the nurses were always easy to read.

The first nurse I watched after the incident was a woman named Kyra. I hadn't thought much of her at first. She like the other nurses was straight to the point and all business. However after she had given that asshole guard shit for screwing around on his wife I couldn't help but respect her. As for that greasy bastard he deserved every bit of hell she gave him. Tonight I couldn't tell much from her. As usual she hadn't said much. Only taking the time to ask the standard medical questions when she had checked on me earlier in the evening. The one thing I had noticed was a cut on her head. I thought to ask her about it but decided there was no point. I knew I wouldn't get a straight answer. As I watched her I couldn't help but notice that she seemed distracted and sort of on edge. Whatever had happened had put some fear into her.

The next nurse I saw tonight was Tessa. I knew I would never forget her. Life had a funny way of kicking you in the balls. When you don't see a decent looking woman for five years and then suddenly life puts a woman like Tessa in front of you and you know you can't touch her. Life is definitely cruel. Long curly dirty blonde hair, blue eyes and curves in all the right places. Yeah, life was definitely kicking me in the balls and punching me in the face. It wasn't just her looks I liked about her. Unlike the other nurses she was different. She had been from the very start. I knew my first few weeks here had been hell on her and all the staff. I had punched her, screamed at her, hell I had even thrown up on her. Yet despite it all she came to work every day and never once quit on me and had somehow gotten me sober, at least for the moment. I knew she was scared of me, but unlike the other nurses she didn't hide her fear and go through the motions of her job. She didn't gawk at my tattoos or burns and look like she was about to be sick. She always looked me in the eyes. She fought her fear in front of me so she could do the best job possible. She talked to me like I was a person and made me feel like I was just in for a normal check up, like out in the free world. Speaking with her made me feel free again even if it was for five minutes. I knew I shouldn't read into her actions too much. I guessed that nurses probably had to deal with patients becoming attached. In a strange way though I couldn't help reading into it. After all it was the first time in five years someone had treated me like a human being, and that had to count for something.

I had to be honest with myself though. When you see things crawling up the walls of your room and you hear the voices of your dead friends, the one thing detox will do is make you honest. At this point I had to be honest with myself. I knew that my time here at the hospital was short. Most of the drugs were out of my system and I was due to finish up my rehab at the prison. Tessa would be gone and I wouldn't even be a thought to her. Why would she want to remember me? I had barely spoken to her and when I did it was either to answer a question or to call her a fucking whore or god knows what else. I was a patient and nothing more to her. So when I saw her at my window earlier tonight I felt a strange mix of hate and happiness. I was happy to see her at first. Somehow over the last few weeks her ability to make me feel human had become my new drug. I hated her because she would be gone. Because I knew I was the type of person someone like her would cross the street to avoid. Truthfully I wouldn't blame her if she did try to avoid me on the street. I wasn't some misunderstood church boy with a tortured soul. I was a convict, a loser and a killer. So tonight when I saw her I let the hate flow. I asked her about the guard and the food. I looked at her as if I was trying to burn a hole in her head. I wanted to intimidate her and make her feel like I was mind fucking her the whole time she spoke to me. In the end however, I apologized to her. I hated myself even more because I couldn't totally hate this woman. She always seemed to draw out something else in me that I didn't quite understand.

She had answered my questions and from what I could tell the charge nurse had asked her to stay for an extra shift. I could see the strain in her eyes. Like Kyra she somehow seemed distracted tonight. I could see her body language was betraying her. She was afraid of something maybe it was me or maybe it was something else.

I wished I had asked her about that something else. Because when I heard the doors pop I knew they were unlocked for a reason and it sure as hell wasn't a good one. Now here I stood holding my hand over Tessa's mouth. I could feel her tremble her eyes were wide and her tears were rolling down my hand. I turned my eyes away from her. I could smell the scent of her hair and when I looked back down I could see her terror. The combination of her fear and her being so close was too much. I could feel myself getting warm and I pushed myself closer to her. Being this close to a woman after five years had its problems. I felt an ache inside that had all but been snuffed out by the addiction. Now it was back daring me to go just a little closer, to cross that line. I knew it wasn't right. I wasn't one of those rapo's that I hated and tortured in prison I was better than that. I fought hard and managed to win this one small battle for the moment. I pushed myself away and gently removed my hand from her mouth. I watched as she began to bolt for the door. I quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her back further into the room. That was about the time Kyra hit me with a chair. I could feel the small visitor's chair collide with my head. I fell back hitting the wall and slid down to the floor.

"Get the hell away from her you son of a bitch!" I ducked the second time she swung. I also watched Tessa run behind her.

"Look you crazy bitch I'm trying to help you two!" She swung the small visitors chair again and this time it was a little too close for comfort. "Shut the fuck up and listen to me you psycho bitch! If you keep making noise whatever the hell is out there is going to hear us!"

"Bitch! Did you just call me a bitch! She swung again but this time I caught the chair and pulled it away from her. "I know what you're all about. I know you're one of those bikers and you're a murderer! I know your type and your type sure as hell don't belong in Detroit." She began to step forward and that's when I stood up and walked forward. Thankfully it was enough to make her step back.

"Look lady, I've never raped or beat any women or kids. I've always been decent to people on the outside no matter who they were. If I was sent out to hurt someone or put them underground, then I can fucking guarantee that they did something to bring me there. And yeah I did murder some people! I did go to prison and I did hook up with some likeminded people. And if I have to choose between being politically correct or getting ass raped in the shower guess which one I am going to pick!" Not even a minute after I had finished my sentence Kyra walked up and slapped me. At this point Tessa stepped between us. I could see she was still shaking but trying to put on a brave face.

"Kyra you are over looking two very important points right now! First, McCree here has for the moment saved our lives. The second point we have bigger problems then McCree's choice of friends he spends time with. I am pretty sure that right now outside our door there are a bunch of cannibals who are going around murdering people. Not only that I'm fairly certain that the people they are killing are getting back up and eating our co-workers. So right now is not the time and place to be fighting. If you two want to kill each other do it after we find a way out of this hospital!" At this point she had stopped crying and was screaming at us.

I watched as Kyra stepped back. I could see as she looked at Tessa that she trusted her judgment. "Fine!" She snapped at Tessa.

"Fine we can save the fighting for later. How the hell are we going to get off this floor and out of the hospital?" I asked hoping that maybe there was some sort of emergency exit.

I watched as Tessa stood there in silence for a moment. I was guessing she was trying to work things out in her head. Finally she looked to her friend Kyra and gave her a quick nod.

"We can't take the elevators. If this hospital is full of those things we would be trapped. Frankly I don't want to be torn apart before I even set foot outside the elevator. I'm thinking we should just take the stairs. At least we can go up or down or in a rush go onto another unit. That would give us some running room. Plus the other floors aren't lock down units which is good." McCree can you remember this number? 3896* In case either Kyra or me get hurt you need to remember this code. It's the access to the doors to the stairwell."

"Girl, are you crazy!" Kyra shouted at her. "You're gonna set him lose?"

"Kyra, what other choice do we have. We can't just leave him here and the other patients to die!"

"You're gonna lose your license for this shit!" Kyra said putting her hand on Tessa's shoulder. At that moment it occurred to me how much Tessa had risked for me and everyone else on the floor.

"Look a lot of nurses are going to lose their license because of this shit. I'll just take my ass back to Canada if I have too. The hospitals over there will hire me back real quick. Look can we talk about jobs later. We need to get the hell out of here now!"

I could see the annoyed looks on both their faces. "What are we going to do after we get out of the hospital? Where are we going to go?" In that moment it was the first time in five years I realized I was free.

"I need to go home and see my kids and husband!" It was strange to hear Kyra sounds so frightened suddenly.

"I need to go home to Canada. That means I have to get to that tunnel before people panic and get stuck in there. Where do you need to go" Tessa said looking at me. I realized then that I really didn't know where to go. The only place I could think of was my gang's chapter here.

"I need to go to the club house where my brother's have set up. They might be able to help me." I tried to sound sure of myself. We were a strong gang but I didn't know if the Detroit chapter would be too receptive to an out of state member. They had to be though. They knew the rules.

"Fine then it's settled." Tessa said heading for the door. "You're the man with the chair now. You can clear the way." Tessa said her voice suddenly filled with authority.

"Great" I mumbled under my voice.

She quickly opened the door and I stepped out. The first creature stood moving slowly towards me. I could see it was the charge nurse from before. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Injuries like that were supposed to cause death. Yet here she stood in front of me in some strange semi rabid daze. She reached out with her one remaining arm. I could have easily vomited just looking at her half eaten face. Suddenly I couldn't help but be reminded of all the shitty zombie movies I had watched as a teen. The one thing I remembered was you had to destroy the head of these things. I swung hard and as the chair hit her head it sounded like a watermelon being smashed. I felt the girls rush pasted me into the hall. As we stepped out I could see things were much worse than I had anticipated. The halls were thick with these fucking things. Thankfully they were moving fairly slow.

"We have to get around the nursing station, if we want to get to the stairs." I heard Kyra say as she looked around the corner.

We made our way around the corner to the nursing station. Most of the creatures seemed busy with the bodies of the remaining nurses and patients. I swung the chair so many times I could start to feel my arms getting sore. Most of these fucking things needed a few shots or more to the head before they would go down. It was not the most practical weapon but it would have to do. We crossed behind the nursing station and I watched as both Kyra and Tessa swiped some keys. I took a few quick seconds to scan for more of these fucked up people around and that's when my eyes fell on it. I looked over to see the cart that I knew held most of the drugs for this floor. I could feel myself starting to sweat. My stomach felt like a million butterflies were moving around in it. The thought of all the different types of pain killers danced in my head. I could feel myself getting dizzy with pleasure. I began to walk towards it when I saw out of the corner of my eye a small arm shoot out. It was Tessa's and she was screaming and crying and for a moment everything seemed to be in slow motion. Behind her I could see Kyra at the entrance to the stair well. She was motioning for me to come to the door. In front of me Tessa screamed and pulled my arm. Behind her I could see one of those fucking things creeping up slowly behind her. Something in me snapped. I guess you could call it self preservation. I pushed Tessa aside and swung the chair. It hit its mark and fell, the contents of its head spilling out onto the floor. I grabbed Tessa's arm and ran to the stairs were Kyra stood.

I entered the stair well first and looked around. I could see nothing above me and as I looked down nothing below. Kyra and Tessa entered the stair well and I slammed the door shut. Both women began to go down the stairs and that's when I heard a voice.

"Run! Their coming!" I could see a woman in light blue scrubs screaming. She was covered in blood and I was sure bite marks. She began to walk down the stairs when I saw a pair of hands spring out and pull her away. I looked down towards the girls and pushed them to keep moving. We made our way quickly doing our best not to trip down the stairs. After several minutes we finally made it to the ground floor. We all stopped and looked out the stairwell door window. I guessed the main floor was where the ER was located. I could see the dead were moving around the ER slowly. Several of the dead seemed busy with the bodies of some of the nurses and doctors. The entire scene looked like a cross between a national Geographic's special with lions and a very nasty BBQ.

"We're gonna have to go back up." I said to the women trying to take charge.

Tessa pushed passed me and looked out the door. I could see she was thinking yet again and I was praying she wouldn't opt to go out there. Because I knew I sure as fuck wasn't following her out there. She stepped back from the door and leaned against the wall.

"Look most of those things out there seem busy with the people they are eating. Look if we don't go out there we are out of options. We can go back up to the other floors and get trapped in here. Or we can go down one more floor to the underground parking. On any normal day when there aren't a bunch of dead cannibals running around, I normally don't go down into that parking garage for fear for my own safety. I don't even want to think of what is running around down there now. So we have two choices the emerge and at least we can see what we are dealing with, or we can go down into the underground parking and not know what is eating us. If either of you two have a better suggestion I would love to hear it right about now!"

"Emerge" Kyra said without hesitation.

"ER" I said quickly echoing her statement. I didn't like the idea but she did have a point. I sure as fuck didn't want to die trapped in some dark underground death trap.

Kyra stepped forward and looked out the window. "This is going to be a problem. We're on the opposite side from the parking lot."

"You two know the way out of here right?" I said wondering which one of us was going to make it through there alive. I watched both women sizing them up. Kyra seemed like she had the will to survive, but Tessa kept surprising me with her survival instincts. At this point I really didn't care just as long as I made it out.

"Yeah, we know the way. No point in talking let's just get this done." After having said that I watched Kyra open the door and step out.

As we stepped out into the ER I could see that most of waiting area had become a slaughter house. Blood spattered across the wall. I could see empty strollers that once held infants now were merely stained with blood. The once sterile smell of the ER was now replaced with a coppery scent. Kyra seemed to know where she was going. I stayed in step behind her figuring that if any of these things attacked she would be the first to go. I looked back at Tessa who was at this point crying. I hated to admit it but if I was quick I could grab her arm and throw her to those fucking things if need be. At least I had some sort of chance with two nice pieces of bait.

We made our way around several corridors and many different twists and turns. I never realized how big an ER could actually be. I saw many rooms most with their doors shut but I could hear sounds on the other side. I wasn't into heroics at this point and sure as fuck wasn't going to open the door to look for survivors. It was at this point as we were nearing the final set of doors to the exit that's when it happened.

Rounding the corner was one big mother fucker of a dead man. In life I guessed from the uniform he had been security here. From the looks of things he had enjoyed his momma's cooking a bit too much. He was a big boy from what I could guess was around 350 pounds. Except that part of that weight must have gone with the missing half of his belly. He started to charge at Kyra and before I knew what I was doing I had tackled the dead guy. At 6'3 and 240 lbs I knew I wasn't some small weakling but I knew this wasn't a fair fight. This bastard was bigger, meaner and the worst part he didn't feel any pain. I quickly got back to my feet and hadn't been up a few seconds when that fat bastard tackled me and knocked me into the examining room. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Kyra get tackled by what appeared to be a dead nurse.

The big boy on top of me and inched his nasty face closer to mine. I could smell the flesh and blood on his teeth. He snapped closer to my face and I struggled to keep him off. Every so often I was able to get a punch in but this asshole didn't feel a thing. I could feel him getting closer when a flash of red crossed my eyes. I could see standing above me was Kyra with a fire extinguisher. She must have won her fight with the dead nurse. She kept hitting this guy but it didn't seem to affect this big son of bitch. Tessa who had disappeared somehow reappeared and ran over to Kyra. I glanced quickly to see her grab something from Kyra's pocket. It was then that I watched as Tessa grabbed a handful of the dead guy's hair and pull his head back. I used all my strength to push this fucker off of me and up. It was then that I watched Tessa give one good pull and yank this bastard's head back. Seconds later I watched her stab a pen into his ear. I could see his body shaking like jell-o and then suddenly he went dead weight on top of me. I pushed the fat piece of shit off of me. I looked over to see Kyra bent over the body looking for something. Tessa extended her hand and helped me up. I stood up quickly in time to see Kyra stand up. It appeared that she had found whatever she was looking for.

Tessa looked towards me and Kyra. She pointed to the big glass doors with the words exit printed in big red letters. She extended her hand to Kyra and then to me. I stuck out my good hand and she grabbed it. She turned and looked at both of us and said. "Let's get the fuck out of here!"


	4. Dawn in Detroit

_**A/N: Chapter 4 is running a little longer then I would have liked. Thank you for the reviews byteme27886 and Bizzyb420. I always love getting them. Reviews give me a good idea whether or not people are liking what I am writing. I'm trying to keep the nursing aspect of the story accurate. However here and there I have noticed a few mistakes I've made when it comes to the nursing stuff. Anyways I do not own Dawn of the dead or any of its characters. I do however own Tessa, McCree, Kyra and Neil. Enjoy!**_

Kyra's car was in the middle of bum fuck nowhere in the parking lot. I sighed with relief because for once her amazing talent to get the worst parking spot in the lot had finally paid off. The cool crisp Michigan autumn air sent a chill up my back. God my sweater would have been nice right about now I thought as I wrapped my arms around myself. As Kyra unlocked the doors I looked back at the hospital still not believing I had gotten out of there alive. Truthfully I was still in shock at what I had seen. I mean was I really seeing all this? Were people getting up from the dead and eating other people? Medically speaking this couldn't be happening. It was impossible. No, this couldn't be happening. Maybe I was having a psychotic break or something. I mean even the best nurse eventually burns out. It's always a small handful of nurses that actually make it out of this job with their lives intact. Marriages failed, jobs could be lost and nervous breakdowns happened on this job. Maybe none of this was real. In the distance I could see many of the dead lingering around the hospital. We had gone unnoticed for the moment. Was I really fucking saying and thinking this? I knew the psyche unit was a bad choice, but beggars can't be choosers when it comes to money and jobs these days. Frankly after my actions today I really wouldn't have to worry. I figured once everything was said and done I would be out of a job anyways.

Around me I could see that many of the staff cars were still here. I figured that many of the owners had not gotten out, or worse had not realized how bad things were and had reported for work hoping to help this morning. I shuddered at the thoughts of many of my friends and co-workers that were still inside. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. I rubbed my eyes quickly and kept watching the hospital. I could see an ambulance in front of the emergency entrance. Bloody hand prints and smears of blood covered the vehicle. The back doors were open and I suspected that the paramedics or should I say pieces of the paramedics were still inside. I didn't want to think about it. As I stared at the ambulance I couldn't help but think of Chris and the speech I had given him about the universe kicking him in the ass. I suddenly felt a little bad. He was a giant asshole but no one deserved to die being torn apart. It was kind of funny how in death the biggest wastes of genetic material could suddenly still resemble human beings. I took one last look at the ambulance. I knew Chris well enough to know he would probably have found a way to survive last night.

I heard a snapping and saw Kyra with a pissed off look on her face. I quickly got in the front passengers seat. I looked at the rear view mirror and watched McCree. He seemed strangely calm as he stared out the window. I hugged my arms around myself tighter trying not to think about the fact he was there. He had been useful so far, but he was definitely a liability in the long run. So far we had been lucky with him. I guess his sense of self preservation was strong enough to keep him seeing things our way. However I wondered how long it would be before he decided to turn. I figured it was only a matter of time before he cut our throats and skull fucked us. I pushed the thought from my head and looked out the window. Right now McCree was the least of our problems.

In the street all the cars were abandoned. Here and there I could see a few people trying to break into the abandoned. The people of Detroit always seemed to have a way of taking advantage of even the worst situation. Jesus Christ and people here wondered why the rest of the U.S looked at Detroit like it was a piece of shit. Many of the cars had blood on them, while others had clearly been set on fire. Occasionally I noticed cars with bullet holes. I had to chuckle a bit. Detroit did have a police force but many people were in the habit of taking care of their own business. It was then that it struck me. Where would all these people go and who would take care of them? It was fairly evident that the police had either lost control or were barely maintaining control of the city. The hospitals were out of the question. People could leave the city, but then other places could be like this too. That was another question on my mind. Were other cities like this? Was Detroit just an isolated incident? I stopped letting the questions roll into my head. There was no point in worrying about these questions. I didn't even know if I was going to make it through the day.

I could see we were getting close to Kyra's. I felt a bump and realized Kyra had just run over somebody. I wasn't surprised though. She had taken to driving on the sidewalks since most of the roads were clogged with traffic for almost ten minutes now. I recognized many of the houses and I had noticed a few familiar street signs. The car began to slow as we pulled into her driveway. I hesitated for a moment. I looked out to Kyra's house. Although it was not the nicest location in Detroit, Kyra and her husband had managed to always keep it looking immaculate. I could see the large maple on her front lawn had turned various colors of red, orange and gold. The leaves on the lawn would have given the home a quaint look if it hadn't been for the blood spattered on the leaves. I looked over to her neighbor's home. The neighbor's house by comparison was a mess. Garbage, older furniture and children's toys dotted the yard. My stomach dropped as I looked at the doorway to see a blood smear on the white trim. Kyra immediately got out of the car as soon as the engine was off. I stepped out of the car despite what I had seen at the neighbor's. I walked to the back and opened the back door. McCree hesitated for a moment. He looked slightly annoyed but I wasn't in a mood to argue. No one was going anywhere alone at this point. McCree stared at me for a moment. Finally I turned and began to walk up towards the steps. I could hear McCree behind me and felt as if his eyes were boring into me again. I had just started up the front steps with McCree , when I heard Kyra scream.

I turned to McCree and grabbed his arm. Still holding onto McCree's arm I raced up the front steps of her house. I stood hesitating at the door for a moment. Inside I could see a small table with some mail scatted on it. The walls were dotted with family pictures, some of them had been smashed while others had small speckles of blood on them. I stepped in feeling my stomach twist and turn in a million directions. It was the utter silence that struck me first. There was no TV on or radio going. No sounds of kids playing or the always joyful greeting of Kyra's husband. It was a silence and stillness that almost always followed death. I ran up beside Kyra who stood wide eyed with both her hands covering her mouth. I could hear her shaky breathing and see her trembling. I looked over to the middle of the living room. All around the room I could see blood everywhere. It had spattered on the walls; Kyra's wedding pictures on the fire place, the kids trophies. It was just everywhere. In front of the fire place on her perfectly white carpet was her husband Mike. In the middle of the floor in a pool of blood, I could see her two young sons Antron and Devon. Both boys had bullet holes in their heads and bites all over their bodies. Hunched over them I could see their father. He was ripping out one of the boy's intestines. I instinctively wrapped my arms around Kyra and began to walk backwards. "Kyra just don't look honey". I could hear my voice shaking as I tried to walk backwards with her. I felt as though I was going to be sick if I didn't keep moving away from this nightmare. I looked over to the wall above the fire place. Written in blood were the words _I'm sorry-Mike_. I began to pull Kyra away. Suddenly she began to scream again. Mike looked up still chewing some of his son's flesh. I could see blood had spilled down his t-shirt which advertised the Baptist church he ministered at. Kyra struggled to get to Mike. I could see him moving slowly towards us. I turned my head quickly to see McCree run towards the fireplace. He quickly grabbed one of the pokers and in one swift move ran it through Mike's head.

"Oh Jesus NO!!" Kyra was screaming and fighting trying to get to her husband and sons. She turned and slapped me across the face and pushed me back so hard I fell to the floor. I watched as she ran and grabbed her eight year old son Antron up into her arms. She rocked back and forth screaming and mumbling something under breath every few seconds...

"Kyra we have to go get the police." I said my voice shaking as I spoke. I sat for a second but could see my words had not registered with her. I couldn't help but think what a stupid thing that was to say. Were there even any cops left? God was I starting to lose it? Or was I just not getting the reality of the situation? I watched McCree drop the poker and walk over to me. He offered me his hand and pulled me up forcefully.

"Jesus! Why did you take my babies!" Kyra screamed even louder than before. I looked to McCree who was watching her.

"Shut the fuck up! You will bring more of those fucking things too us!" McCree snapped. I hit his arm and caught his attention.

"That is not helping!" I shouted at him. He wore a look on his face that said he would gladly backhand me or worse if I touched him again. He turned back to Kyra with a look of frustration. I could see he was preparing to shout at her again. I sure as hell didn't want to get beating from McCree, but his yelling wasn't helping. I did have to agree with him. Kyra was only making us a target at the moment.

"Don't do it! I know she is going to bring more of those things here. We have to get her the fuck out of here now. She's out of her mind right now. So don't fucking yell, just be useful!" I could feel the tears sliding down my cheeks as I screamed. "Help me grab her arm and get her out of here."

"Whatever, she completely fucked and we plan to take her with us!?"…McCree mumbled at me. At this point I didn't care what McCree had to say. I just cared about getting the three of us out of that house. I knew Kyra well enough to know she would get it together. At least I prayed she did. I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach that we had a very short window of opportunity to get out of this house.

I quickly walked over and grabbed Kyra's arm. McCree joined me and we began to pull her up to her feet. She still clung to Antron's body tightly. I looked to McCree and we both began to pull on her arms. Between the two of us we managed to pull her arms apart. The sickening sound of Antron's lifeless body hitting the floor followed. We began to drag her out of the living room towards the front door. I began to search for Kyra's keys in her scrub pockets. I was thankful when I felt the cold metal touch my fingers.

We made our way to the front door to be greeted by several people. At first I assumed they were Kyra's neighbors. I couldn't help but think of how bad this looked. Two people one of which was covered in prison tattoos dragging some screaming woman out of her home. If I wasn't shot today it would be a miracle. Thinking about it the locals would probably shoot McCree first then me. I could feel Kyra going dead weight as she tried to sink to the ground to cry more. I struggled to lift her. McCree finally got her to her feet. As we began to move again I started to notice the people that were starting to surround the house. I took a double take at the people around us. As they got closer I began to realize that many of them had various sorts of wounds on them. Some were missing entire limbs.

I felt McCree jerk Kyra down the stairs and I followed. I hit the unlock button on Kyra's remote car starter. He threw her in the back seat and slammed the door. I slid into the driver's seat and could feel my heart pounding as I started the engine. I reversed the car speeding out of the driveway. I could hear several ugly sounds of grinding bone as I hit some of the people on the way out.

We drove for at least a good ten minutes. Throughout that whole time McCree stayed completely silent. Kyra had since calmed down and had curled up into a ball in the back seat. I could hear her sobbing and praying. I kept my eyes focused on the road trying to figure out my next move. As we got closer to downtown I began to notice police and fire trucks everywhere. Some were manned but most looked abandoned. It was at this point I looked over at him to see him staring at me. Suddenly out of nowhere his forearm shot out and hit my neck pinning my head back against the driver's seat. I slowed the car and pulled over to the side.

"Look honey we've done stuff your way long enough. Now we're doing things my way. You're gonna turn the car around and drive to Detroit's Westside. Then we're gonna pay a visit to some of my buddies. As he spoke I could feel him grinding his arm into my neck. It was getting harder to breath and I could feel tears leaking out of my eyes. It was then that I heard a click.

"No asshole, we're gonna do things my way!" It was Kyra and from what I could see she had a gun.

"What the fuck! Where did you get that?!" I felt McCree's arm was loosening on my throat.

"Detroit hospital security has guns asshole! Next time you should pay more attention." By this time McCree had dropped his arm and sat staring at Kyra.

"Bitch give me that fucking gun! McCree began to lung into the back seat. When suddenly I saw Kyra press the gun up into the middle of his forehead. I couldn't even begin to describe the look in Kyra's eye. I didn't see my friend anymore. The only thing I saw was a woman holding a gun firmly to a man's head and she had no fear in her eyes. I think McCree realized that too and backed away.

"I just lost my husband and my sons. I am not a woman to be fucked with right now! I will not lose my friend today too. I will put a fucking hole in your head and dump your body outside this car. Do you understand me?!" McCree held his usual thousand yard stare at Kyra. I could see he was thinking. As I stared at them I couldn't believe that Kyra could do this. She had strong religious beliefs that she had never compromised on. I knew she was no killer but could the death of her family shake her values to the core? She wouldn't just toss aside her beliefs. This was my friend, but as I looked at her I wondered could she give up who she was because of her grief? I silently prayed in my head that she wouldn't do it.

"Tessa, where do you need to go?" Kyra said never once taking her eyes off of McCree.

"I need to get home to Canada. If I can make it to the tunnel we might have a chance. There are places we can go and be safe. At least I hope there is." Suddenly I wasn't so sure of my words.

"Canada is just going to have the same fucking problems the U.S does. We're wasting time doing this." McCree shouted at us. I looked over to see McCree sweating. It occurred to me that he had not been given his meds today. So now his body was left fighting the last remaining drugs in his system. He was going to be in a pissed off mood all day. Fuck, this was all we needed now, a fucking junkie with a massive anger management problem coming off his meds today. Fucking fantastic!

"Look you fucking village idiot. Canada has a population a little over 30 million people. The U.S has a population of well over 200 million people. Less people, less disease and less dead people running around its not hard to figure out which place would be better! "Kyra can you call my brother and have him meet us somewhere?"

"Fine". Kyra rummaged through her scrub pocket and pulled out her blackberry. I watched as her dialed his number. I was surprised she had remembered his number after all these years. Really I shouldn't have been surprised that she still had his number. They had dated for only a short time but had ended things early. The breakup hadn't been bad and the relationship had resulted in them forming a better friendship then romantic relationship. Hell my brother had even gone to Kyra's wedding ten years ago and went to Tigers games with her husband on a regular basis. I pulled myself out of my thoughts of the past. I could hear the phone ringing. It seemed like ages but I finally heard my brother's mumbled voice over the phone. I could hear Kyra talking but found myself paying close attention to the road and throwing sidelong glances at McCree to make sure he was behaving. However there wouldn't be a reason for him not to behave at this moment, seeing as how Kyra still had a gun to his head. I heard the phone click shut and Kyra spoke.

"Your brother is stuck in the middle of the tunnel right now. He said that things were pretty bad on his side of the border. So he thought he would come and see if you're ok. He said traffic hasn't moved in over three hours so he was going to get out and walk. He says a lot of people are doing the same thing." Kyra leaned back into the back seat getting comfortable.

"Are you fucking kidding me right now! You two yappy bitches want to go into the middle of downtown Detroit to try rescue some stranger! Fuck! I might as well put the fucking gun in my mouth now and save the dead and the police the work!"

"It's her brother jackass!" Kyra snapped.

"Well cunt he's a fucking stranger to me. Fuck why don't we go and pick up all her family while we're at it. We could have a family reunion down at the water front!"

"He's the only family she has McCree. And watch your fucking mouth!" Kyra was clearly gained her mind back, at least for the moment.

"Fuck!" I screamed as I put the gas to the floor of the car. I could see both McCree and Kyra had terrified looks on their faces as the speed of the car increased. It took us almost fifteen minutes to get to downtown Detroit. On any other day we would have been there in five, but again the streets were clogged with cars and road blocks had been put up.

As we reached downtown there was no more room to drive. All the major roads and sidewalks were clogged with traffic. Most people had left their cars and chosen to walk to the tunnel and other areas they presumed safe. Finally we also took the lead and got out of the car. I could see the many tall buildings that dotted Detroit's skyline. On any other given day the buildings would have been beautiful in the morning sunlight. Now they just felt like a concrete cage. Around us I could see the U.S army and National Guard had taken up posts. In the distance I could see what looked like some sort of check point. Several soldiers manned it. Some of the soldiers were motioning people in one direction, while other soldiers held guns on people keeping them from rushing various barricades. One soldier directed a long line of people into COBO hall. Looking at the line of people I couldn't help but notice the various injuries on them. There was a wide variety of trauma, much of it bite wounds. Most of the people moved into the building quickly, while those who couldn't move as easily or those who couldn't move at all were aided by people around them. As I looked I realized that there was absolutely no civilian or military medical staff helping these people. Suddenly I couldn't help but wonder if these people would be offered any medical attention at all. A sense of foreboding crept into my mind. I hadn't seen any civilian ambulances or military medical personnel vehicles around COBO either. As we walked by the doors of COBO I watched as several soldiers separated a woman and what appeared to be her elderly mother. I could hear the woman screaming for her mother. I felt McCree's hand gently slip under my chin and turn my head so I was looking in front. I didn't bother looking at McCree after that. I think we both understood what was going on in COBO. I fought the tears that were threatening to leak down my face. I managed to hold it off and compose myself. Ahead of me stood a soldier and I knew I had bigger problems then ethical dilemmas at the moment.

"Looks like U.S army is trying to get its shit together. Frankly it looks like one big cluster fuck to me." McCree said coldly. I gave him a dirty look that told him to stay quiet as we approached the check point. I could see the check point was manned by a kid who looked like he had just finished high school.

"Anyone injured?" I could him looking us up and down and trying to find where the source of the blood on our scrubs had come from.

"No one is injured." I said nervously. I could see the kid searching my face to see if I was lying.

"Where's all the blood come from miss?" I could see the soldier was getting suspicious.

"We just escaped from a hospital. We're just trying to find a way home. We need directions." I said pleading. I could see the soldier thinking about the request. Finally he looked behind us at the rest of the people. He quickly waved us through. As I began to walk away I felt the soldier grab my arm. He pulled me aside and spoke quickly into my ear.

"I'm done my shift in two more hours. Did you want to have a drink with me?" I could see the look of hope in his eye. "I know I look young but I'm actually 23!" I could see him smiling hopefully. I guess he figured new city maybe he could have some fun. I looked at him like he had just spoken in some foreign language for a moment. I didn't want hurt his feelings but this was definitely a strange time to be asking for a date.

"Thanks but I'm going to have to pass." I quickly got back Kyra and McCree who had been listening in on the conversation. McCree was giving the kid a look like he had just said something offensive to him. I wonder what the fuck his problem is. We began to walk and I looked back to see a disappointed look on the soldier's face. I felt bad for a moment but kept walking.

We made good time to the tunnel. It was only a few minutes to reach the old mariners church near the tunnel. We finally stopped realizing we needed to figure out a way to get across the huge crowd of people that had formed. I stood in awe at the few thousand people all standing around. Beyond the crowd I could see the border personnel and the army had set up a blockade. I could hear people shouting and swearing. The anger and tension in the air was thick charging up anyone who got close.

"I'm I the only one who sees the shit storm that is about to happen?!" McCree said almost laughing.

"What are you talking about McCree? The army and the guard have it under control." I said annoyed. At this point I had become sick of talking to McCree. I was sick of the constant fear and how he made my stomach knot. I didn't want to piss him off but I was exhausted from the mind games.

"Are you kidding me! The army doesn't have anything under control. Get a fucking clue Tessa. You have a city full of thugs and gang bangers on one end. On the other you have a city full of unemployed white trash auto workers and still even worse you have a bunch of people with a blue collar mindset. Do you really think the government gives a shit about these people? They were taking people into COBO to be shot. They herded the rest of the people into the city center and surrounded them with a bunch of police and military. The only thing the army is doing is keeping the great unwashed public of Detroit out of the rich white suburbs. Do you think the military cares about Detroit! They care about big money cities like New York or L.A. They are going to keep us all in here until we either become one of those fucked up creatures or they shoot us. We need to get the fuck out of here now! Take a good long look at the people around you Tessa." I scanned the crowd around me. McCree did have a point. The majority of the people were exactly who McCree had described. I could see the different people but they all wore the same look. It was one of growing rage.

"Honey if you think Hurricane Katrina was bad just wait until you see what happens here. These people watched the news and saw what happened there. People are not going to be left to die at ford field I can guarantee that. You know those soldiers over there that make you feel so nice and secure? McCree pointed to the long barricade that blocked the tunnel. "Well guess what?! I put fucking money on the fact that those soldiers will be dead in an hour and these people will be tossing their bodies into the fucking Detroit River! Singing fucking "Joy to the world" If you can't feel the anger in the air you are completely clueless. These people have a breaking point, and when they hit that point the gates of hell are going to open up on this city."

"Whatever! I said I needed to get my brother. I didn't say I wanted to shoot the shit with everyone here. We're not staying here! But please feel free to peace on out of here anytime you like! Otherwise why don't you try and help!" I snapped at McCree.

I turned and walked away from Kyra and McCree and began to move through the large crowd. As I walked by I could see the doors to the old Mariners church were open. Inside I could see the minister and people desperately praying in the dim candle light. I turned my head and was almost repulsed by the desperation of the people. It disgusted me and made me afraid because it was the last resort. It made me feel like those people had given up and left their fates to god. It made it feel like it truly was the end. I wasn't in a rush to believe that at the moment. I had to believe that this could all be fixed. I had to believe there was some hope. It was impossible for everything to be over.

I pushed forward into the crowd. I could hear shouts and obscenities as I moved. It seemed the closer I got to the barricade the harder people pushed together. It took me several minutes to get up to the front. The heat, the body odor and smell of all these people crammed together made me want to vomit. Finally I reached the front of the barricade and was greeted by two sights. I saw the normal welcome to Michigan sign above the tunnel. The other sight was less then welcoming. Behind the army barricade were just as many people pushing to get into Michigan. The crowd was so large the line actually went all the way into the tunnel. I closed my eye for a second trying to shake the image of all the people stuck in the tunnel. Thinking of the dim red light, the car exhaust and all the people jammed in there like sardines was making me sick. I opened my eyes and that's when it happened.

I heard the first gunshot but thought perhaps it was someone lighting off a fire works for some reason. Fireworks! Good god I was out of it today. I guess working almost twenty four hours straight will do that to a person. I turned to see where the sound had come from, when my eyes fell on a sight a few feet away from me. On the ground a woman lay bleeding and lifeless. Next to her a toddler sat screaming and crying. I could only guess that she was either trying to cross the barricade or perhaps she had just gotten in. Either way she was on the ground and not moving. I fought through the crowd shouting that I was a nurse and I could help. People parted and I had nearly reached the woman when it happened. A flash of light hit my peripheral vision. I turned to see where the light had led. On top of a humvee that was being used to block people on both sides, I could see a soldier screaming and burning. Then I saw the source of the fire. Someone had managed to make Molotov cocktails and was tossing them. The people began to rush the barricades. A stamped of people screaming and pushing began to come at me. As the people moved I felt myself being dragged to the ground. I could feel people falling onto of me. People's shoes collided with every inch of my body and pain surged through me. I kept trying to look up only to be greeted by a sea of never ending people. I tried desperately to push myself up but I felt like I had been kicked in the chest. It was getting harder to breath. I could hear myself screaming and crying for help, but no one heard. I began to crawl towards the barricades. I looked up to a police officer staring down at me. I began to reach for him. As I did he brought the butt of his shotgun up preparing to bring it down on me. At best I could only guess that the cop thought I was one of the dead. I had managed to get to my knees but as I stared at the cop I began to sob and sink to the ground. As he began to bring down the gun I shut my eyes readying myself for the blow, but it never came.

My eyes snapped open quickly in time to see McCree crash into the police officer. They tumbled to the ground. I watched as McCree reached for something on the ground. It took a moment for me to realize it was a beer bottle somebody had discarded. He quickly smashed it and proceeded to jam the broken remains into the man's neck. Instantly a fountain of blood gushed out of the man's neck. People began to gather and kick and beat the officer. I couldn't watch anymore. I turned and vomited on the ground. It was then that I felt a pair of hands grab my arm and begin to lift me up. As I turned to see who was helping me I saw a flash and in an instant McCree was onto of the man who had tried to help me up. Instantly I recognized the man. It was my brother Neil.

I could see McCree was about to stab my brother the same way he had the police officer. I instantly lunged at McCree and grabbed his arm. He looked at me stunned for a moment. I could feel him tensing up. "McCree that's my brother Neil." My hand was wrapped around McCree's arm. I began to gently lower his tense arm to the ground. The whole time I kept my eyes locked with McCree. He kept his head turned only showing the good side of his face. I was a little surprised by this. However it was no use as I turned my head to face him completely. The anger in his eyes disappeared and was replaced by a look that I guessed might have been concern, if that feeling were possible for him. I heard the bottle hit the ground and roll away. I tried to get to my feet but found my legs would not comply with me. Suddenly I felt McCree's arms wrap around my waist and lift me to my feet. We stood for a moment and I could feel McCree pressing me closer to him. He kept looking down at me with this strange look in his eye and then back towards Neil. Finally I pressed my hands against his McCree's chest and mumbled softly a thank you and that he could let me go. He looked down at me again and then at my brother and hesitantly let me go.

I turned to my brother and my tears began to flow. "Neil! Jesus I thought you were dead!" I cried as I ran and hugged him. I quickly let go and could see that Kyra had finally managed to find us. "Where's Lizzy?" I asked wondering if he had my niece with him.

Neil's eyes began to water and he quickly looked away. "In the tunnel I was with Lizzy and her mother. Those things are everywhere in there and they surrounded our car." I could see him quickly wipe away the tears. "We began to run and I was holding on to her mother's hand and she was holding onto Lizzy. I felt a pulling. I was so desperate I just kept moving. Then suddenly I felt her let go. I looked back to see those fucking things all over them." Neil looked towards the tunnel lost in his own personal horror movie. "We need to fucking go! Now those things will be coming out any minute now."

I put my hand on Neil's shoulder and looked back at the tunnel entrance. The crowds had thinned out a bit, but still all around us people were fighting with each other and the soldiers. I could see the dim red light of the tunnel and it was then that I started to notice the first wave of the dead step on to Michigan soil. The soldiers closest to the mouth of the tunnel along with the border guards were quickly sucked into the tunnel with the dead. We all stood glue in place as we watched the first big wave of the dead pour out of the tunnel. Suddenly I felt a pull on my arm and we were running. As we moved I could hear the constant moan of the dead at my back.


	5. The long Mile

_**A/N: Hi everyone! It had been ages since I have last updated. I didn't forget about this story. However school and day to day life always seem to eat up much of my time. This chapter has a little action in it. So I hope everyone enjoys it. To those who may be in the medical field reading this, please note not everything will be medially accurate. I have added some things just for entertainment value. So to everyone enjoy the chapter and as always I love reviews.**_

I couldn't tell you how many blocks we ran that morning. I had never really seen much of downtown Detroit even when I was free. I wasn't really aware of much of much of anything at the moment. I could see Kyra, Tessa and her brother in front of me. All I kept thinking was follow them. Every so often, out of the corner of my eye I could see old buildings that in their prime might have once been impressive, but had been reduce to a sad image of their former selves. I saw a few people being dragged down and attacked. At first I thought it was the dead but the more I looked I realized it was just normal people. Just normal average people turning on each other out of fear and greed going back to their true nature. After a while I just stopped looking and I just drowned out the screams, gunshots and sirens. Not listening to the screams made me more aware of what my body was going through. The symptoms had been subtle at first. They had started at the hospital and had slowly made their way to the surface during the run. I could feel my heart racing and I knew it wasn't just from the running. It was beating so hard and so fast I thought it might start cracking my sternum and ribs just to get out. I think my stomach was the worst. I didn't know if I had to shit or throw up. All I knew was that I could feel heat and tingling in my stomach. A cold sweat had formed on my body but even in this cold October weather I still felt hot. The others in front of me were now becoming a dizzy blur. Finally I just felt my legs give out from under me.

I turned over onto my back. The cool asphalt on my back was comforting. I could hear the other voices of Tessa, Kyra and her brother. I turned my head to see Kyra reaching me first. She grabbed my left wrist and held it as she looked at her watch. I could hear Tessa's voice as well, but it didn't register. The only thing I was hearing sounded distant and jumbled. I turned my head and looked over to my side. I could see fire and smoke everywhere. Bodies littered the streets as if they were nothing but trash being put out for next morning garbage pickup. In the distance I could see a man and woman running. The woman was beautiful in business clothes running. When I say beautiful I don't just mean a pretty girl you might see on the street. I had never been one for black women but this woman was truly beautiful. When I say beautiful I mean like striking like you would just stop what you were doing to watch her go by as she walked down the street. I watched as the woman was tackled by the man. She hit the pavement hard but was immediately flipped over onto her back. Blood streamed down her face and I could see her crying in pain, her front teeth had been shattered in the fall. I watched as the man ripped at her skirt and stopped every so often to punch her in the face as she struggled and fought. I watched and everything seemed to pass in slow motion and the rape seemed even more violent from looking at it that way. Every scream from the woman was amplified. I watched the piece of shit doing it with that sick fucked up grin on his face. In prison I would have cut off his balls and fed them to him. Prison had a very low tolerance form rapist and child molesters, those were the unspoken laws. Here there were no laws here now, from either the official side or unofficial side. Seconds later as if my thoughts had been broadcasted out, I watched as the man's head was torn apart by a soldier's bullet. The woman pushed the body off of her and took off running only to be shot dead seconds later more than likely mistaken now for one of the dead. I turned my head back to Tessa. I didn't want to think about the woman who had just died for no reason. Dead was dead and she wasn't my problem. I could feel Tessa's soft hand on the bad side of my face and I shook my head away from her touch. I could hear her voice getting louder and louder. A sting ran up the side of my face and before I knew it I was being brought to my feet and dragged by Tessa and her brother.

Around me I could see people fighting each other, fighting the police and fighting the dead. I looked up to see the soldiers and police walking around shooting all who were on the ground and those who were bleeding. I felt the tops of my feet and knees being scratched as Tessa and her brother dragged me. I felt Tessa let my arm go and suddenly her brother did the same.

"Tessa, leave him!" I could hear her brother screaming at her.

"Goddamnit, McCree get up! Their fucking shooting people in the street. You have to get up now." I could see tears streaming down her eyes as she tugged on my arm.

"Tessa! Leave him!" Just as her brother screamed that the side view mirror of a car not five feet away exploded.

"Neil he saved me and Kyra! I can't just leave him to die in the street." I could hear the struggle in her voice. I knew she wanted to leave me but something else in me told me she wouldn't. Fuck, I knew that unlike me she wouldn't cut my throat to save her own skin.

I could see Neil had grabbed Tessa's arm and was beginning to pull her away. She was fighting like the devil pounding on his arm with her fists, but she was definitely no match for him. I tried to stand up but my legs felt like they had been dipped in cement. I turned to look back and see a large crowd of those things slowly making their way towards us, for the moment they seemed preoccupied with the poor bastards left behind us. As I tried to stand my legs gave out on me again and I hit the asphalt hard. The coolness of the road almost seemed to help the nausea. Its funny how life sometimes life sorts its shit out, because suddenly it did. At this point I felt too weak from the withdrawal symptoms to do much of anything. Just keeping conscious and not choking on my own vomit was hard enough. I looked up past Neil and Tessa and in the distance I could see an ambulance speeding towards us. I tried to scream but my words were a jumbled mess. Finally, Kyra turned and looked toward what I was pointing at.

The ambulance had no lights going but it was moving at a pretty good pace. At this point I didn't really give a shit if the thing ran me over. At least I wouldn't have to deal with the withdrawal symptoms without meds anymore. The thunderous sound of the diesel engine filled my ears. I could see it wasn't slowing for anything. Frankly, I was surprised that there were any paramedics out in the first place. I would have figured they would have been dead or hauling ass out of the city. Suddenly, I heard the sound of screeching breaks and the ambulance ford emblem was almost imprinted on my forehead. I saw Tessa stop fighting with her brother and a look of disgust cross her face.

"Tessa get in the fucking ambulance, NOW!"

"Oh, for fuck sakes! Of course you would survive Chris."

I watched as Tessa walked over to the driver's side of the ambulance. I couldn't help but wonder who this pretty boy fuck face was and how did he know Tessa? She sure did seem pissed off to see this asshole, but hey maybe he could give us a ride. Tessa was still screaming at the guy when his partner leaned over and spoke. The woman looked to be in her late 40's early 50's and she sure as hell looked like she didn't take shit. She had long brown hair with bits of gray weaved through out and tattoos going up and down her arms. Either she had been somebody's old lady or she was a bouncer at a bar. Good god that was one big fucking woman.

"Look Tessa, either you and your friends can stay on the street or get in the ambulance. Chris is an asshole with both know it, so stop pissing and moaning about the obvious." I watched as Tessa took the woman's words in. She looked down the street at the slow moving crowd.

"Fine, Rosie your right. I need help getting this guy up though, he's going through withdrawals." I could see her looking at me with concern.

"Fine, give me a second hun".

I could see the woman named Rosie slide out from the passenger's seat. She was a hefty woman who looked like she was push around 200lbs plus and could handle herself in a bar fight. She waddled over and I could feel her and Tessa get their hands under my armpits. It took a second but I managed to get my footing and started to move.

I looked over to Tessa as they carried me. She nodded her head in the direction of the woman named Rosie and introduced us. "McCree, meet Rosie former bar owner, mother of 2 boys, Paramedic and professional asshole babysitter."

"Please to meet you." I mumbled something as we reached the back of the ambulance and then threw up on myself. I looked up after the last of the dry heaves had passed to see Rosie cleaning the vomit off the back of the ambulance. She flung the doors open and I managed to step up into the ambulance and half fall on the floor. I looked up to see two figures walking towards us. I wasn't sure if it was the dead or people. I began to mumble and point again. Both Tessa and Rosie looked at me like I had just asked both of them to fuck me or something. They gave an annoyed look and then they turned and it was too late.

"Alright, honkey bitches get your fucking hands up".

I leaned myself up against the back of the bench facing the stretcher in the ambulance. I could see a black man with a black and bandanna on pointing a gun in Rosie and Tessa. He seemed to be looking around. Behind him stood a curvy, muscular black woman with an elaborate weave. The woman also held a gun but seemed to hesitate to point it.

"We're taking the fucking ambulance! Your fat ass needs to get in the front. Your fat cracker ass might be good for something." I head the man say as he waved his gun at Rosie. I could see from the look in Rosie's eye that this was not the first time she had had a gun pointed in her face. I watched as the large woman slowly began to make her way away from the back doors, and that's when the shots rang out. I looked to see small circular stains seep through Rosie's shirt. She put her hands up to her chest and seemed confused. She gently touched about her right breast, and brought her trembling blood stained fingers up to her face. I could hear her starting to gulp air as she examined them. As she turned her hand around to look at the blood it was then that it happened to registered to her and she collapsed like someone had just dropped a wet sandbag.

I could hear the man with the gun yelling "Peaches get in the mother fucking ambulance!"

I watched as Tessa bent down to try and lift Rosie. She struggled trying to hook her hands under the large woman's armpits. She looked up at the man with the gun who seemed to be scanning the tops of the buildings to see where the shot was fired from.

"Help me!" I could hear Tessa yelling at the man. I could hear the desperation in her voice.

"Fuck you bitch! I ain't doing shit!" The man pointed the gun in her face. The man looked more fearful than anything.

"Go to hell, if you don't help we ain't going nowhere. The ambulance driver won't drive if you don't help pull his partner in." Tessa snapped at the man.

"Peaches blow his fucking head off" the man ordered. The woman had already climbed into the ambulance. I guessed her name was Peaches. What the fuck kind of name is that? I could see her hesitating. She shook as she looked through the small window that connected the front of the ambulance to the back. I could see she was looking at Chris trying to decide what to do. I knew just by looking at her that she didn't want to do it. She had too much of a softness in her eyes. She looked back and forth furiously trying to make up her mind. Then suddenly Kyra made up everybody's mind. I looked to see her reach back and lift her scrub top. The look in her eye meant business and with a gunslingers speed she had security guard's gun pointed in peaches face. Neil lunged and grabbed Peaches in a choke hold.

"Now listen the fuck up! Get your ass movin and pick up Rosie and get in the motherfucking ambulance." I could see from the look in Kyra's eye that she was ready and willing to pull the trigger if it meant getting us all moving out of downtown.

I could hear the moans of the dead and sound of helicopters above with soldiers shouting orders over bullhorns. I knew things were getting bad real fast. I watched as the man changed spots with Tessa and slipped his hands under Rosie's armpits and begin to back up into the ambulance. Tessa had her feet and with one quick motion the managed to drop Rosie onto the stretcher. The man with the gun slammed the back door shut.

"Chris, drive!" I heard Tessa scream. I watched as Tessa looked over to Kyra and in some unspoken language the two of them started grabbing what equipment they could from the shelves in the ambulance. Neil choked Peaches until she dropped her gun, and with a quick shove he pushed her onto the floor. I could see her rubbing her throat and coughing as she looked up at Neil.

"Ignorant white boy!" I heard Peaches snap as she got to her feet and slapped Neil. Neil rubbed his face and snapped back at Peaches. "Fuck you bitch!"

I looked back over to see Kyra cutting off Rosie's shirt and Tessa opening strange packages with pads and placing them on Rosie's chest. She looked to the gunman and snapped "Hey carjack asshole. You get to start a new career today as a paramedic." I watched as Tessa motioned for the man to hold the padding on one of the many bullet wounds Rosie had taken. "Chris damnit we need you back her now!" The look in Tessa's eyes worried me. It wasn't a look of fear, but a look of knowing you were losing a fight but you still had to keep fighting. I could hear Rosie making these thick raspy breaths and gurgling sounds. Blood was leaking everywhere and I could see it dripping off the puke yellow paint color on the metal of the stretcher. I could see Rosie was struggling to breath and beginning to fight with Kyra. The gunman managed to get one of her arms down but was struggling with her. I watched as Rosie struggled to breath. One sound seemed to stand out from the rest. It sounded like air coming in and out of a hole in Rosie's chest. Chris damnit we need you now! Rosie had a sucking chest wound." I heard Tessa screech.

The ambulance slowed and I heard the doors open. In a second Chris was there pushing his way in between Kyra and Tessa. "Fuck! Chris do you guys not have supplies!" I watched as Chris gave her a dirty look. "I am so fucking sorry to inconvience you Tessa. All our shit was used up tonight trying to help people. There isn't a single fucking base, firehouse or hospital that isn't overrun by those fucking things. So guess what, you're just going to have to fucking make due." By this time Kyra had started an IV or some shit like that and Tessa was injecting something into little port on the IV. At this point I could Rosie had stopped breathing and Chris was leaning over her. Suddenly he grabbed some supplies from one of the shelves. As I watched him I realized what he was doing. He was doing that thing they do on T.V where they stick a tube down your throat. I was mesmerized by what Chris was doing when suddenly Peaches spoke up.

"You know if we ain't moving then those things are going to start to crawl all over the ambulance."

"Fuck!" I heard Chris shout. "Well somebody else needs to fucking drive. Peaches, cherry, apricots whatever the fuck your name is. Can you drive?" Chris said looking up just as he finished taping everything down to the airway device. "Yeah, I can fucking drive. I used to be a bus driver. Bet you didn't think I had a job did you asshole!" I could hear the attitude in Peaches voice and just knew we were all going to be one sweet happy fucking family.

"Well get in the front and fucking drive!" I watched as Chris tossed the keys to Peaches. I could see Peaches pushing past everyone. She slowly cracked the door and peaked out. It took several moments but then she made a run for the front door. A trail of "oh lord, oh Jesus" coming out of her mouth. It was at this time that Neil pushed past us and jumped out as well. I heard both doors in the front slam. The roar of the diesel engine flooded my ears. I could feel the vehicle move and was thankful for at least having a few more minutes to live, even though I was shaking and vomiting everywhere. I looked over to see Chris, Tessa and Kyra working on Rosie still, who's color had changed dramatically to a snow white color. I slowly crawled up onto the bench across for the stretcher and gripped the small the small netting that was hung next to it. The movement of the ambulance was doing nothing for my nausea. I closed my eyes and gripped the netting. The voices of the others seemed fading away and I kept trying to focus on the movement of the vehicle. I had a few blissful moments of peace and then suddenly I heard the words I had been dreading roll off of Peaches tongue. "Fuck army mother fuckers put up a road block." My eyes snapped open and I looked toward the front to see the panic in her eyes. As I turned back to look at the others that was when I heard the first batch of pounding on the outside of the ambulance and the all too familiar moans of the dead. I looked over to the front where Peaches sat. She turned her head quickly to the back with a now determined look in her eye. "Hold onto your shit everyone, it's gonna be a bumpy fucking ride"! That's when Peaches made her choice.


	6. Know thyself

**A/N: I posted this chapter a few days ago. I took it down after reading it several times. I wasn't happy with how the story was shaping up. So I made a few changes that I felt were a better fit to the storyline. So I hope everyone enjoys and as always read and review.**

I caught the tail end of what the woman who called herself Peaches was saying. Like any emergency situation I had dealt with things were moving incredibly fast. I could see Rosie was trying to breath. On one side of me I could see Chris trying to get an airway going to give Rosie just a little more time. Kyra was injecting Rosie with something which I didn't catch, which was bad form of her not to inform me. I kept working on the wounds to just try to get them to stop bleeding, but it was a losing battle. I took a second and looked over to still see Peaches looking at us for direction. It was then that it occurred to me that we weren't moving. I quickly elbowed Chris.

"Fuck! Tessa what is your problem!" I quickly pointed to Peaches looking at us lost. I swear Chris's jaw almost dropped. "For fuck sakes Peaches just drive!" I had never heard Chris scream that loud in all my life. I almost started laughing. That was when I heard the engine roar and we began to move. I could hear the sounds of things hitting the ambulance. I can only assume Peaches was either running over the dead or the soldiers and their barricade. I pretty much tuned out the crunching, grinding and sounds of the bodies colliding with the ambulance. I just kept working, just kept trying to remember everything I had been taught when I worked as an emerge nurse. Yet my thoughts were betraying me right now. I had never before had a moment where I couldn't bridge my knowledge but it was happening now. Part of me suspected it was because two years had passed since I had left the ER to pursue the semi easy life of a psych nurse. However, I had been misled. Psych nursing was just as stressful, heartbreaking and frustrating as ER nursing. The only difference seemed to be slightly less blood. Well, that was kind of true up until today. I stared down at Rosie for a second again; her skin was almost gray now. I could see the lack of symmetry in how her chest would rise and fall. I kept working and slowly began to realize the lack of knowledge was not from a poor memory. It was because deep down in my heart, where that savage part of a human being grows I realized this was a lost cause. Even if we were able to stabilize Rosie, what then? We sure as hell couldn't take her to a hospital. I knew we could sure as hell forget about fire stations, police stations, hell we couldn't even take her to a CVS urgent care clinic. The reality of it all hit me. No matter what we did Rosie was as good as dead and there wasn't anything any of us could do about it.

Slowly I pulled away from Rosie. I looked to Chris and nodded in the direction of where he kept the narcotics locked up. I naturally assumed that he had used up any that was placed in his trauma bag, but still hoping there was a little something leftover in the lock box. I watched him unlock the small panel on the wall of the ambulance and remove a small box. "What do you need"? I could see him watching me impatiently. I knew what had to be done, yet at this very moment I wasn't sure if I could do it. The logic seemed so sound two minutes ago. "Just give me the whole box Chris I will figure it out." I could see Chris was hesitating to hand me the box. Then Rosie made a few more raspy breaths and he shoved the box into my hands. I didn't even bother to look at the ampules I was breaking open. I knew what analgesics were supplied on the ambulances. I began to draw up the drug into my syringe. I figured whatever cocktail I was making would give Rosie peace in a few short minutes. I flicked the syringe a few times to remove the air bubbles. I had to laugh that at this point I was concerned about air bubbles in the syringe. I found a port on the IV tubing and began to inject Rosie with the pina colada of narcotics that I had made up. Normally I prefer to inject slowly so the patient didn't feel any burning sensation from the drug, but at this point I truly didn't care. I wanted to be done with my dirty deed. As I began to pull the syringe out it was then that I felt myself being tackled.

I hit the ground hard and I could see the stretcher wheel right next to my face. I felt my wrist being bounced off the floor. I looked up to see McCree on top of me. I could feel his weight on top of me crushing me slowly. I tried to suck in a few shallow breaths, but his weight was too much on my small frame. I turned my head to see him trying to pry the syringe from out of my hand. He was slowly trying to move one finger at a time. Even though he was still weak from withdrawals he still had a fair amount of fight in him. I kept focus on my hand trying to keep it tight so that he could not take the syringe. I felt some of the weight lift off of me and it was then that I realized Chris was trying to lift McCree off of me. McCree struggled I could see something else was in his eyes. Whatever that something was addiction, mental breakdown, whatever was stronger than Chris. I could feel McCree lift off of me. Chris was still holding onto McCree in a death grip. Suddenly McCree seem to move backwards and slam Chris into the wall. Chris dropped off of him and he was again back on top of me. This time his knee was pressing into my chest. I couldn't breathe and I felt like any second my sternum would shatter. In the corner of my eye I could see Kyra still trying to work on Rosie but taking quick breaks to hit McCree. Finally I heard a soft voice speak. I looked over to see the car jacker grab one of the portable AED from a shelf. He looked over to Chris who mumbled something. Over top of McCree I could see the carjacker line up his shot. He spoke to get McCree's attention.

"Hey asshole"! In a flash the carjacker swung the AED and hit McCree hard in the head. "We don't hit women, Mother fucker!" McCree was dead weight once he fell on top of me. I started to push him off when Chris and the carjacker lifted him off of me. Chris dragged him back to the wall and leaned him up and began checking the head wound. The carjacker extended his hand to me. I grabbed it quickly and sat down on the bench. I looked up at the carjacker and spoke. "Thank you!" I said rubbing my neck. The carjacker smiled a golden toothy smile. "You're welcome, and the name is Dante!"

I sat back down on the bench my chest and back still hurting from my encounter with McCree. I took my blood covered gloved hand and gently rubbed my sternum. I looked around to see Kyra covering up Rosie's body and Chris nursing tender areas all around his rib cage. Finally my eyes fell on McCree. He leaned up against the back of the wall next to the jump seat. I could see a fine trickle of blood coming down the side of his head. The blood twisted and turned in the grooves caused by the burns on the one side of his face. He didn't try and clean up the blood or check for any other injuries. All he simply did was look at me with his intense icy eyes. I felt if I stared long enough at them I might burn up somehow. I looked away thinking about McCree and what I had encountered with him. In the hospital he had saved me. He had frightened me but had in the end showed kindness and mercy towards me when it all went to shit in the hospital and in downtown Detroit. One second he looked at me with all the hate in the world. Other times he looked at me as if he wanted something from me. I turned back to see he was still watching me. I wondered for a moment if he had seen me overdose Rosie? And if he had was he trying to stop me from doing it? Or was he just looking for another fix? I turned my gaze away from him and looked out the back windows of the ambulance doors. I could see the city was slowly starting to disappear from my view. Peaches had opted to avoid the freeways and simply navigate the system of side streets. In that time I witnessed many things that still have me waking up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat and screaming. One of the things that stood out most was a small public school on the outskirts of Detroit. My eyes had fallen on the school praying that no children had been sent there on this tragic day. As we drove past the two story building I could see a janitor desperately trying to lock the fencing around the school. I could see his hands shaking as he fumbled with the lock and I could see the dead running towards the fence. When the first of the dead hit the fence it knocked the janitor back. He quickly got to his feet and began to sprint towards the school. He made his way across the yard passed all the rusted out playground equipment, in a desperate attempt to find safety. By then at least twenty of the dead had shown up. The janitor kept looking back at the group and had been just a few feet short of the front doors when three of the dead managed to bring him to the ground. I shifted my gaze upwards to the old worn out windows that were probably new back in the seventies. In the window I could see small hands and at least eight pairs of little eyes watching this nightmare unfold in front of their school. I turned my head away and wept. I shut my eyes and let the tears slide down my face. I held my eyes shut hoping that maybe when I opened them I would be back home asleep in my bed. Slowly I opened my eyes and looked over to see McCree watching me. I turned my gaze back to the windows and as I looked out I could see more of the dead slowly moving into the street.

We had driven for almost three hours having gone past Ann Arbor and into some sort of ritzy little town. You know those types of towns. The ones that look great during a particular season where all the rich people like to build homes so they can feel a little country without actually having to do the work. Well, in Michigan the fall and those little towns go hand in hand. As I looked out the window I could see the streets were empty with only a small scattering of the dead here and there. Most of the shops remained untouched locked up from the previous day. As we rolled through the town for a second I thought I could almost smell crisp fall leaves and apple cider coming through the vents on the ambulance. Slowly after about fifteen minutes the little cute town began to disappear from the back window only to be replaced with forest and the vast pallet of colors from the trees. If I didn't have to see the occasional dead body in the middle of the road or feel Peaches run over one, I might have actually enjoyed this little ride out to the country under normal circumstances. The forest lasted for only a few short miles and slowly began to change into hills and farmers fields. The majority of the day went by quickly and during that time we had passed through several small towns but had yet to leave the state of Michigan. I had watched Peaches make her way slowly and safely through a lot of zombie filled terrain. As the hours slipped by I started to notice certain landmarks over and over again. I looked towards Chris and Kyra and wondered if they noticed. As if reading my mind Kyra shouted at Peaches.

"Peaches where the fuck are we?" I could tell Kyra was exhausted and angry by the fact she was not even trying to watch her language.

"I'm trying to find us a place for us to rest tonight. Unless you want me to drop your ass off at the Holiday in!" Peaches snapped back. I could see Peaches searching the street for something in the distance. She mumbled something in her soft little voice to Neil. I found it funny that Peaches could point a gun at us and look fierce, but yet she had this tiny soft little pixie voice.

I watched as Peaches maneuvered the ambulance around a pile of wrecked cars and the dead. The fading light of the day was bouncing off of Peaches ebony skin reveal small scars around her neck and more questions. I could see her jaw was set and she looked determined. Finally she turned the ambulance and pointed and screamed with joy. "I did it there it is!" I stood up and looked up front out the front window. In front of me I could see massive sprawling grounds surrounded by thick forest full of breath taking fall colors, gold, reds oranges as far as the eye could see. In the middle of the grounds surrounded by the forest was a large calm lake. The shore was dotted with covered racks holding up what I suppose was summer equipment having been put away for the winter. I felt the ambulance pick up speed and slowly the view was replaced by a 12ft high brick and stone wall. We reached the front gates which were of course locked. I felt the ambulance stop and before I knew what was going on Peaches had thoughtless jump out of the ambulance and onto the cobble stone driveway. She ran to the gates and popped open a panel that had a number pad. She quickly punched in the code and the gates slowly began to open. I looked over to see a black and gold sign that said Welcome** to Orchard Winds Country Club and Private resort.** I finally realized where we were. I had often heard of this place by listening to the occasional doctor's conversation in the hospital but I never thought I would see it. Orchard Winds was truly gorgeous. As we drove up the long driveway I could see the main club house it was old with dark brown brick. It was like something you would have thought belonged on the east coast for all the old money to enjoy. I looked around to see an empty parking lot dotted by large colorful oak trees. Peaches drove around the back and finally brought the ambulance to a stop. Everyone hesitated to step out with the exception of Peaches. Surprisingly McCree was the first one to push past everyone and open the back doors. I could see he was shaking from both cold and withdrawals. I wanted to go help him but the aching in my chest after his attack had me rethinking that urge. I slowly stepped out of the ambulance and felt the snap of the fresh autumn air hit me. It was then that the true beauty of the place hit me. I had a full view of the lake surrounded by the forest. I panned my gaze to take in the golf course, the main building and a large lavish building that I could only assume was to house summer guests. I looked back to see the gates down the driveway shut. They looked big and heavy clearly metal but painted a dark rich brown so as not to look like it was a prison. I turned back thinking that I guess rich people really liked their privacy. I walked over to Peaches who wore a large grin on her face. I could tell she was proud that she had managed to safely get us out of the city.

"So how do you know about this place?" I could tell I startled Peaches. She looked at me questioningly wondering. I could tell from the look in her eyes she was trying to decide if she could trust me or not. I was familiar with this look. I had seen it a thousand times before when I had worked in the ER. People from Detroit were tough and used to taking care of themselves. They had little use for people working for a system which they were told was there to help them, protect them. People like Peaches saw people like me as carriers as empty promises. I could only look at her with everything I was feeling. Because I knew for once the things that divided us had fallen away. Now we were untied in all that we had lost. I couldn't be sure if Peaches saw something in my eyes, but her look softened and she began to talk.

"I worked at this place last summer. I served food and bartended." I could see Peaches had paused for a second thinking back to something and smiling. She looked back at me then choosing her words carefully. "I liked it out here. I mean the rich white folks could be assholes sometimes, but the work was easy and the tips were good. This place was peaceful for me and for some reason it felt safe. Most of the staff left in September, only some grounds keepers and a few people from management come here year-round. This place doesn't start prepping for the next season until about February. I didn't see any cars so I don't think any of the staff came in today."

Peaches punched in the code to the door and slowly pushed it open as the rest of us stood tense. She flipped a light switch and a hall to the back kitchen area was illuminated. Slowly we all walked making our way down the hall and into a large kitchen. For shits and giggles I opened one of the fridges only to find it bare, with the exception of a box of baking soda. So much had happened today that I realized I had totally forgotten that I hadn't eaten in almost 24 hours. Peaches had noticed and pointed to a door. I walked over to the door with Kyra who had gun in hand stood next to me. I slowly opened the door to have it reveal a fully stocked pantry of dry goods. "Why did they keep all this stuff Peaches?" I called out to Peaches.

"Sometimes they do Christmas parties if the person having them has enough money to make them open the club in the off season. So they always keep the dry stuff and canned goods stocked." I looked back and slowly closed the door. We walked out of the kitchen and through a main ball room covered in dark marble floors, with dark cherry wood bars off in two corners. Finally, we came to a large set of doors. Slowly Peaches opened the door to the main entry way of the building. Expensive old furniture dotted the room and the marble floors and dark cherry wood theme continued on. Peaches went to the front desk to see if she could find a staff schedule. My eyes scanned the room more. Long heavy curtains covered the windows giving us some much needed cover. I sat down in one of the plush sofas and I could feel my bones settling. I looked at my watch and realized it would be getting dark in an hour or two. I closed my eyes and for the first moment during that day I didn't feel afraid. I figured we had made enough noise coming in to have caught the attention of the dead. I figured if they had been here they would have tried to kill us by now anyways. Peaches came bounding over and sat down on the opposite sofa next to Dante. I looked around to see that everyone was there finally relaxing. "None of the staff was supposed to be in today except for one manager, but I didn't see a car or anything."

"Fantastic, at least we have a place to rest safely for at least one night." I said leaning my head back.

"No we don't. We still need to search this place, because if that one manager is still here this place could turn into another blood bath." Everyone looked at McCree and I think in the pit of everyone's stomach we knew he was right.

The search of both buildings was done quickly. In truth most of us were exhausted, hungry and broken both inside and out. We returned to the lobby and waited quietly as Dante and Neil fought for kitchen supremacy in regards to making a pasta dinner. We ate in silence each in our own thoughts trying to put the day together so that maybe it could make sense. As night drew on we all went upstairs to where the guests stayed, me, Kyra, Neil, Chris, Peaches and Dante. McCree had been placed in another room. We spread out into one room, stealing mattresses from other rooms. Nobody objected because at this point being together was now just as important as being safe. Just being alive being together was enough to drive the darkness back even if it was for just a few hours.

I sat on my mattress waiting for Kyra to organized supplies out of Chris's trauma bag. McCree had wounds on his feet from running and I deep gash on his head from being hit by an A.E.D. Both Kyra and I knew we had to deal with McCree's wounds after all his injuries would only slow us down or get one of the group members killed. I looked around the room that was bathed in moonlight. I could see Peaches sleeping peacefully in Dante's arms on the mattress. Dante lay awake lost in thoughts that I can only guess were of survival for both him and Peaches. My gaze traveled to my brother sitting on his mattress with is back against the wall. I walked over and sat next to him, and took his hand in mine. In the moonlight I could see tears moving slowly down his cheeks. He withdrew his hand from mine and brought them to his face to hide his tears, but his pain could not be hidden. He wept and shook. I put my arm around his shoulder and let him weep. Kyra finally walked over and nodded at me. I watched as my brother lay down in his bed. He had stopped weeping and slipped into sleep. Yet somehow I doubted it would be peaceful, I knew his daughter would linger with him even then. Slowly I walked to the door passing Chris. I touched his shoulder gently and he looked up. I could see his eyes full of pain and anger. "I'm sorry about Rosie, Chris". He looked away and mumbled "So am I".

Slowly I walked down the hall to McCree's room. I walked side by side with Kyra, the silence so deep between both of us. The day had been long and exhausting both mentally and physically. I couldn't speak for Kyra, but I knew that finishing off the day taking care of McCree was the last thing I wanted. Just looking at Kyra I could tell she was probably not that thrilled about it either, but in the end it served a purpose. When we walked into the room McCree saw the supplies and knew what we were there to do. I filled a bowl full of warm water and with Kyra's help cleaned McCree's feet. Kyra began her work as did I. I saw the terrible cuts and scrapes on his feet. He had run miles with us keeping step most of the way. I was actually somewhat surprised that he had been able to keep up with us. I guess McCree's sense of self preservation had won out over the pain he must have been feeling. I looked up to see McCree wincing a little and grinding his teeth as he tried to resist the terrible pain surging through him. I wrapped his feet in certain areas as best I could. Kyra slowly packed up the supplies. I told her that I would deal with McCree's injuries on his head. She hesitated to leave the room, but I nodded at her and she slowly went to the room to get some much needed sleep.

In truth I didn't want to be alone with McCree, hell I didn't even want to be in the same building as the man. Yet despite all this I had my reasons for dealing with him at this very moment. First I had to look at the greater good of everyone here. If he got sick he would only hold up the group or hold a grudge against everyone for not helping him in the first place. Plus the reality was that no one knew what he was truly capable of. It was better to avoid arguments and fights until we saw what his true colors were. He had been calm his last few weeks on the psych unit, but the mentally ill and addicts have an amazing talent for masking their true feelings and intent. As I organized my equipment another thought began to creep into my mind. I didn't wanted to be thinking about it, but McCree did have one other benefit. I hated to let myself think this way, but having McCree around also meant that at least we had bait or something for the dead to chew on if the worst happen. McCree's death would buy us some time to escape or fight back. Secondly, I knew that if I did not face him now, I would never be able to do it. It just seemed logical to get the ugly business of dealing with him out of the way sooner rather than later. I gathered my equipment and stood above McCree who was sitting on his bed with his back against the wall. As I moved close I could see McCree tense up. Thoughts of him lashing out again and killing me ran through my mind. I did my best to ignore the reaction and continued on with my work. As I worked I could feel his eyes on me. I found myself trying to work faster but instead I found my hands shaking and slowing me down. I didn't bother to look down at him. I felt like if I looked down and caught his eyes I would reveal some sort of weakness he could exploit. I finished up and gathered up my equipment. I began to take a few small steps away when I heard McCree speak.

"Tessa how's your hand?" I turned to see McCree staring expressionless at me.

"My hand is fine"…I said sounding very annoyed.

"Thanks for the repairs". McCree said quietly gesturing to his head and feet. "I am sorry about earlier." He paused waiting to gauge my reaction. In the past I had been patient with him in the hospital thinking his behavior was just from withdrawals, but after today I was left wondering. Maybe by sobering up he had started to show his true colors, and from what I had seen today there was nothing good about him. However, I figured one could never be sure what his motives truly were. Who McCree was and what he would do remained to be seen. I wasn't sure if he was trying to be sincere or not. I looked at him irritated. I didn't care and I didn't want to hear his bullshit, especially at this time of night.

"McCree, I am just going to be direct and truthful with you. The only reason why Kyra and I are taking care of your injuries is because if you get sick or weak you become a liability for the group. What matters at this very moment is the welfare of the group as a whole. And save your apologies. What's done is done. You tried to kill me today just so you could get high. So don't waste my time with your bullshit."

"Fuck you! I've saved your life twice in one fucking day and this is the thanks I get!" I could see McCree eyes were getting wild. I had seen this look before in the hospital when he had first arrived angry and ready to fight. I slowly started walking backwards towards the door never taking my eyes off of him even for a second. I could feel my rage and pain rising up from being attacked earlier today. My hands were sweaty and trembling as I balled them up into fists.

"Did your parents feed you lead paint as a child! Are you just that fucking stupid! Just because you saved me doesn't excuse the fact that you beat on me and tried to kill me for some fucking drugs! The only reason why you saved us was for your own benefit. You would throw me to those things out there in a heartbeat if it suited you!" I stood with my eyes burning too dry to make any tears.

I stood shaking with anger staring down McCree. He seemed to be lost in thought. He looked up at me with this cold look and a strange smirk on his face. He laughed for a minute and then whatever was so funny seemed to fade from his mind.

"Tessa, I can admit to what I did today and that it was wrong. But don't think for a second that I was blind and didn't see what you did. You act so high like you can do no wrong because you are a fucking nurse. You shit on me because I killed a few people for money, but who are you to fucking judge? After all you killed Rosie!"

"Fuck you!" I turned and walked out.

I reached my room to find everyone asleep. I walked over and kicked off my shoes and removed my blood covered scrub top. I looked at the tank top I had been wearing underneath it. I sighed realizing that it too was covered in blood. I lay down on a mattress near the window facing the lake. I pulled the covers up and curled up into the fetal position making a cocoon with the blankets. I could hear the wind blowing outside. McCree's words echoed in my brain. I felt like I could stay awake all night going over the conversation in my mind. I could feel the anger running through me, but my exhaustion from the day was stronger than my anger. My sleep was deep and I soon began to dream. In the dream I was back in the ambulance working on Rosie. I could see myself giving Rosie the injection. When I finished I watched Rosie draw her last raspy breaths and slip into death. I called out to Chris and Kyra, but was only greeted with silence. I looked out the ambulance windows and caught a glimpse of my reflection. I could see I was covered in blood and my guts had been ripped out. I screamed and looked around to find everyone around me dead and rotting.


	7. Wants and Needs

**A/N: Hi everyone. So it's been a while since I have updated. As always I hope everyone reads this chapter with an open mind. It is not perfect and I am the first to admit that. I will try and update as much as I can during the summer. So with that said, I hope everyone enjoys the chapter and as always review.**

I blew out the small candle on the nightstand next to my bed. I could hear the wind blowing outside and when I turned to look out the window I could see the forest and the lake. I shifted in bed trying to get comfortable. The sheets smelled of industrial detergiant and felt rough against my skin. The mattress felt too soft and padded, but after spending five years on a prison mattress no bed in the world would ever feel the same. I knew I would wake with backache tomorrow from sleeping on this fucking thing. I shifted around until I found the right spot. I turned my head back from the window and looked at the shadows on the wall created by the darkness and moonlight. I looked at the shadows trying to find shapes but everything was a dark and shapless to me.

The one thing I can say about prison was that it teaches you to think and to be comfortable being alone with yourself and your own thoughts. After today I had a lot to think about. The main things that floated through my mind, was survival and how long these fuckers would keep me around before they threw me out to fend for myself. I knew it was a possiblility. The reality was even if they did throw me out, how long would they survive. There is afterall safety in numbers. I rolled over to face the door of my room. I knew tomorrow something had to be done. We all couldn't just stay here and wait for help to arrive. After what I had seen today I was doubtful we would see anyone. The army was beyond outnumbered when I looked at all those fucking things coming out of the tunnel today. We needed to make a choice tomorrow to either stay or go. We needed to go for supplies guns, food, gas, disel for the ambulance. A lot of choices had to be made tomorrow and I wonder if these people had enough fucking sense to realize it.

I closed my eyes still thinking, hoping sleep would come. It was then that I realized I wasn't shaking for the first time today. The headache I had earlier was also gone along with the nausea. I guess my body was starting to get used to being clean. Now I just needed my brain to catch up to that fact. I knew there had to be drugs left still in the ambulance. I could feel that idea burning in my brain. The little gray box that could turn it around for me, and send me back to where I had been. I pushed the thought out of my head. I needed to think of something else anything else. That's when I went back to Tessa. I hadn't really thought much about her once we had arrived here. I was more concerned with what the next step was in all of this. Now my thoughts drifted between her actions today and what I had seen in the past. I had watched her for so long in the hospital I thought I had pinned her down as to what type of person she was. Now after her actions today I felt like I knew nothing about her. The gentle, kind side I had known in the hospital hid something else.

I was surprised by her today. I hated her for not letting go of the needle, but for the moment it was the saneiest choice. I was surprised with her actions with Rosie. I found it funny how easily she made the decision to take a life. I never would have thought she could do it, but there in front of me she did. The ease of her decision made me wonder if she had something to hide, maybe her experince with death went beyond the hospital. It was also strange she had trusted me enough to be alone with me even if it was for just a few minutes. I wish I had done more with those few minutes, but I didn't consider it. I knew she didn't trust me now and maybe she never would. I couldn't let my hard on for her blind me to the fact she had made it obvious she would kill me to save her own skin. She had good survival instincts and in a strange way I had to respect her for that. I knew though for the moment that she wouldn't try and sell me out. I knew her ugly secret. She had killed Rosie. I could see the look she had given that paramedic. That was the look of hate for someone you had been fucking. I knew that look well because I had gotten it plenty of times before. I doubted she wanted him to find out what she had done. Everything had gone by so fast that day that I doubted he had seen what she had given Rosie. I felt like knowning this all of this gave me some sort of edge. I knew that there would be a time to use this information, but for now I could keep this too myself. I watched the shadows move on the door. I thought back to the words I had said to Tessa. She had been fucking ungreatful tonight. I had saved her twice today, but it wasn't good enough. She had given me respect and kindness in the hospital but out here with me being free, something had changed in her. She saw me as a monster as something to always be afraid of. I couldn't totally be surprised by the reaction. I had both physically and mentally hurt her today, but it was the mental attack that had seemed to hurt her the most. I could see from the look in her eye today I had struck a nerve when I mentioned Rosie. I rolled back over towards the window. I could feel my head starting to swim and my eyelids starting to sink. I didn't want to think about the dead, the people in the other room. I just wanted to sleep and wake up in a normal world again. My eyes fell shut and I slept hard that night.

The next morning when I awoke sunlight flooded into my room. I put my hand over my eyes and squinted. The sun was bright and it was shaping up to be a beautiful day. It just fucking sucked that I couldn't go out and enjoy it without being torn apart by those fucking things. I flipped the covers off and swung my feet over the edge of the bed. I looked down half expecting to find slippers and the morning paper. Instead all I found was carpeted floor. As I stood up I felt a rush of pain go through my feet. I had forgotten that I had spent most of the day running bare foot through city streets. Yesterday had left my feet cut up and raw. I moved around trying to get used to the pain. I wondered into the hall to find it empty. I wondered if they had left me. I felt cold and rubbed my arms for a moment. I looked down to see my wide variety of black and white tattos. I had partly regretted getting some of them. Others I wore with pride. I looked down at all the black ink having wished I had gotten some color in the tattos, but prison didn't give you the choice of colored inks. It was either black ink or nothing. I walked down the hall to see door after door of dark cherry wood up against the beige carpet. Finally I stumbled up a linen closet. I opened the door to find stacks of bright white towels, face cloths along with little soaps and shampoo bottles. I searched around until finally I found what I was looking for. A stack of plactic bags help individual wrapped complementary house coats. I reached up and grabbed one taking it out of the package. On the house coat embroidered in gold letters was the name of the club. I put it on quickly and walked down the hall to find a flight of stairs which led down to the lobby.

When I got downstairs I was surprised to hear voices coming from the dinning room area. I walked slowly across the cold marble floors of the lobby to find everyone gathered in the dinning room eating breakfast. Kyra was the first one to speak.

"Morning McCree"...I could tell she was tense. The others stared at me expressionaless. I suppose they were trying to decide about me in that moment. I looked over to Tessa who wouldn't even look at me.

"There's instant oatmeal in the kitchen. Just grabb a pack and sit down"...the one called Dante said to me.

I raised an eyebrow at Dante. "What no baccon and eggs". I was surprised to find Dante flash me a gold toothed smile and laugh.

"Brother, I wish we had eggs, but this ain't a fucking Denny's". Dante said and laughed some more. I chuckled a bit at how ironic things were. In prison I would have stabbed him and pissed on him for the hell of it. Now I found myself sharing a laugh with the man. I was still pissed he had hit me in the back of the ambulance, but he had good reason. At this point I didn't want to hold a grudge and Dante seemed to be decent enough.

I quickly made myself some instant oatmeal and grabbed a glass of orange juice. I could tell it was the shitty frozen concentrate kind, but it was better then nothing. I walked into the dinning hall and took the empty seat next too Kyra and Chris. We ate in silence for a few minutes; I could see everyone's eyes darting back and forth. It was as if we all knew the conversation we needed to have but no one wanted to start it. The truth of the matter was that whoever suggested we leave the safety of the compound was the one who took on the responsibilty of our survival. As I chewed I began to think of what I would say if I decided to speak. I knew I didn't want to starve to death in this place or continue wearing the same shitty smelling clothes. I didn't want to spend my day sitting around in some rich person's building with Tessa and the others looking at all the things I would never have been allowed to have back in the old world. I needed to do something, anything.

"I think we should go out and look for supplies today". Everyone looked up from their food and looked at me as if I had just asked them to put a loaded gun in their mouth. I could feel the tension mounting. They all just stared and one pair of kept burning into me. I could see Chris trying to hold back his words.

"Got a question? What the fuck is your name? Is it Chris?" It was right about after I had finished saying his name that the tension hit a point.

"Who the fuck made you leader!" Chris said as he stood up instantly and looked down at me. Immediately I was up. I stood almost eye to eye with Chris who was slightly shorter then me.

"I didn't make myself the leader, but nobody else seems to have the balls to say something. I'm not going to spend my day waiting for those fucking things to come down to the club to play a few rounds of fucking golf! I sure as fuck and not going to starve to death in this place either! Get a fucking clue we have one gun with us that probably has maybe three shots left. If you have a better suggestion I would love to fucking hear it". I screamed right into Chris's face. He stepped back almost falling backwards over his own chair. I sat back down and continued to eat. It was then that I heard a voice and I was shocked to hear somebody side with me.

"I don't trust McCree anymore then the rest of you, and I sure as hell think he should shove his redneck racist tattos up his ass, but the man has a point. We do need supplies, weapons, food, gas, and medicine. We don't know if help is going to come. The internet is still working; at least that's what Peaches told me. The military is saying to stay out of the big citys and stay in your home if you can. They said some of the rescue centers are being overrun". Dante look around at everyone including me to find some sort of consenses. Suddenly Peaches came in the room breaking the silence.

"Did somebody say my name?" Peaches said after she took a long sip of coffee. She sat down next to Tessa.

"Baby we were just discussing what you told me this morning. You know the stuff you found online." Peaches took another sip and put her mug down nodded quickly and swallowed her coffee.

"I was just online again. They are saying that Dallas, D.C, Boston, Miami, L.A, New York are gone, those fucking things are everywhere. I was just in the other room watching the news. The reports are showing pictures of Detroit burning and those fucking things eating people in the streets. This was at 5:30 in the morning. Somebody shut down the news because the last thing the news lady said was that the army was pulling out and there was no help coming. They said stay in your homes or go to a rescue center".

"So I think we need to vote on this. Do we all go into town or the surrounding houses and get supplies? Or do we try and find a rescue center"? Finally I had asked the question that was on everyone's mind. I could see Peaches and Dante looking around at everybody to see what the decision would be. When it was all said and done everyone had raised their hand in favor of going into town for supplies. I guessed their reasoning was about the same as mine. The rescue centers were probably fucked and I wasn't going to chance it.

"So the main question is what we know about this area and these things." It was the first I had heard of Tessa this morning. She pursed her lips waiting for anyone to speak. Finally after the silence became too much she spoke. "Okay, so we know these things are slow moving, we know that it's got to be some kind of virus going around. What we don't know is how it spreads." At that point Chris spoke up and Tessa looked at him with a questioning look.

"Whatever the hell this thing is, it's spreads through the bites of these things. At least that's what I saw on all the calls I did. I know that the doctors in the hospital emerge didn't know what the fuck was going on or how to treat any of this. We need to start thinking about what if one of us gets infected." Tessa looked at Chris like she was going to leap over the table and strangle him. In truth I would have loved to have seen that.

"We haven't even stepped outside of this building yet and you're planning on how to off one of us!" I could see Tessa cross her arms and a stubborn look seem to set in her face. I stared at her for a long time. I could see Tessa felt my eyes on her. I caught her sneak a look towards me, than look away quickly. I could see she was becoming more uncomfortable by the second.

"I'm not saying anyone is going to get bit, but we have to think about the reality of things. Most of the major cities in this country have been wiped out. Whatever this virus is, it can spread fast. I have seen it at work. Getting attacked and bitten is the risk we are taking by going out. We all need to be prepared for this!" Tessa still stood facing Chris. I could see the hate in her eyes for him, but I could also see that she knew he was right.

"When Kyra, me and McCree were in the hospital we figured out how to kill these things. You have to get the brain. The brain is the only way these things go down. Body shots won't work. That brings us to the next thing. We need to get weapons before anything else." I could see the group was listening and nodding in agreement. "Fuel, food and clothes are the next priorities. Peaches you seem to know the layout of the land can you figure out where the closest town and residental areas are?"

"I can go on goggle earth and find some houses nearby. I need to check on the news updates anyway. I just don't think we should go into town just yet. The nearest town would be Litton. I think there are about 17,000 people or something like that. It's one of those cute little resort towns and shit. Should have a lot of shops. That's still a lot of the dead we're gonna have to put down." I could see Peaches was trying to figure out still whether she had made a bad decision.

"So it's agreed. We should at least try for some of the local homes". I could see everyone was looking at me in a different way. I didn't quite understand it but I think the group had come to a temporary decision about me. "We can use the first three or four houses as practice runs, then we should start planning for the town. So the next question is how the hell are we going to do this?" I stood looking at everyone again. Dead silence filled the room and I could see everyone avoiding eye contact. I poured myself a cup of coffee and decided somebody had to get this psycho fuck family together. "Look before we even go out we need to talk about a few problems this group has."

"Funny to see you taking a leadership role!" I turned to see Tessa glaring at me after she had snapped at me.

I looked at her taking in how she looked this morning. She was still wearing the bloody scrubs and looked like she hadn't slept.

"First off I notice is that when were not running for our lives all we do is fight. We need to decide if we are going to learn to stay together and work together. Look, let me point out something about my former life. In prison people have two choices join a gang and get the protection of a group, or go out into a population of people who all want to kill you and see how long you last, for most people the choice is obvious. The same princple applies to us. We can go out on our own out there but how long do you think any of us would last? The best prison gangs the best familys whatever you want to call it, have leadership and they are very organized. So, I am going to ask do we all vote to stay together." I looked nervously at everyone. If we split that meant I could be on my own and my chances would go down. Hell, if everyone decided to stay together we might have a chance. I was surprised when everyone raised their hands. _Well holy shit! This might actually work!_

"He is right we don't stand a chance out there if we go it alone." I was surprised to hear Chris side with me. I could see he was trying to stare me down. I had to deal with this bullshit before and this shit was not happening today. I kept my eyes locked on him long enough that he looked away.

I looked around at everyone who seemed more relaxed. "If we are going to all live through this we need some rules. "Anybody want to speak up on how we should run things." I looked around and could see everyone trying to figure out and organize their thoughts. I looked over at Tessa who looked back at me. I watched as her icy blue eyes began to thaw a little. She looked away ending our little staring match and finally spoke. "Perhaps you should start McCree." It was funny her voice seemed less angry and softer now.

"Rule number one. Everyone fights, everyone learns to fight and everyone has a weapon on them at all times. I don't care what the fuck it is. I just want to know someone knows what the fuck they are doing when the shit goes down."

"Rule two." I looked over to see Tessa trying to avoid eye contact with me. "We don't leave anyone behind. If one of us is wounded we pick that person up and carry them out. If they turn into one of those fucking things we don't leave that person to roam around and attack other people or us. None of us deserve to die being torn apart by those fucking things out there."

"Rule three". I looked to see Peaches smiling after she spoke. I got the feeling she was one of those fucking annoying people who are happy all the time no matter what. "When we go out for supplies we all share with each other. We don't keep stuff from the others. If we are together we need to share everything. If outsiders come then we need to decide if we are going to share our supplies. Whether we like it or not, all we've got is each other."

"Rule four". I looked to see Dante leaning back in his chair. "No one goes out after dark. The only reason any of us should go out is if we need to escape. No one should go anywhere alone either. I had to deal with too many of those fucking things in one night. Too many good people died in my neighborhood because they ran outside in the dark."

"Rule Five". I saw Kyra stand up and look at both me and Tessa. "If any of us have a problem with each other we air it out in front of everyone. We need to learn to work things out together instead of choosing sides and trying to kill each other. If we can't even do that then we are as good as dead. Whether we like it or not we are all connected and we all need each other".

I looked around to see everyone taking this all in. I felt everyones eyes on me suddenly. I hated the eyes and the silence. I spoke quickly and I was surprised at how commanding my voice was. "Anyone have anything else to add"? Still more silence. Finally, I stood up and grabbed my coffee mug. I stopped for a moment as another rule hit me. Actually, I felt like it would be best for rule number 1. "About rule one. It's nice we want weapons and we all want to shoot, but those things out there are fucking attracted to sound just like any other living creature. So shoot only if you really have too. Otherwise learn to kill quietly". I looked around at everyone and they seemed to be watching me like they were amazed or seeing something for the first time.

"I think these should be the major laws of our group. Little shit is going to come up but we can meet up and figure things out. Anybody got a problem with these ideas?" I looked out at the crowd of people for an answer, but was only answered with silence. As I turned and walked away I heard a quiet voice speak up from the crowd.

"We still need to take care of Rosie". I turned to see Chris stand up and walk silently out of the room. I looked around at everyone. Kyra and Tessa seemed to have a look of being lost in their own thoughts. Peaches just a looked to Dante that said she didn't know what to do. Neil got up and walked off. I stood for a moment and watched everyone leave the dinning room slowly.

The afternoon hit us quickly and by 2:30 I was standing outside watching Chris and Neil finishing up digging a shallow grave for Rosie. I looked over to see Peaches and Tessa sewing up the last of the bed sheets together that covered Rosie. Every now and then I could Tessa look up at me. I knew she was nervous about me. Every time she looked up I knew she was wondering if and when I might share her little secret. I knew that I needed to wait to let the secret out. Having information like this was something to enjoy and take in at the right time. I watched her as she leaned over placing the last few stitches on the makeshift body bag. I found my eyes glued to her tight round ass and then moved them up to her face to see her soft lips. The end of the world might not be so bad if I could still enjoy some of the little things in life. I watched as Tessa get up and walk towards me. I hadn't realized it but I had kept on staring. Finally she stood in front of me. She snapped her fingers twice to get my attention.

"Hey, McFuck up! Could you please go help Dante and Neil with Rosie!"

I watched her walk away feeling like a complete idiot. She stood next to Kyra staring at Rosie's body. I walked over and gabbed head and sholders end of the body bag. We placed her into the dirt hole however she still landed like a sack of fucking potatos. I stood back and wipped the dirt off my hands. It had become dark and cloudy the wind was blowing through the trees making the leaves fall to the ground. I felt a pair of eyes on me and could see Kyra staring at me. I looked away and could hear her voice begin to speak.

"Sadly we are all here today to remember our sister Rosie. She was a friend, partner and mentor to some of us. Too others just a passing aquintence. No matter how you knew her she touched our lives. She will be missed but is at rest now. Let us pray and anyone who wishes to speak feel free." I watched as Kyra stepped back and Chris stepped forward.

Chris stood for a moment and as I watched him I couldn't help notice that for a second he seemed to look like less of a fucking asshole. He clearned his throat and looked down at the body of Rosie.

"Rosie was my partner for five years. She took me as this cocky little fuck and turned me into a great medic. At least that is what she would say. She was my friend, mentor and she was like a second mother to me. She was patient and always tried to help me, even if I didn't deserve it. I'm sorry her two boys have to be without a mother. I'm sorry the world is losing a great medic and a great woman. Rosie, I will always remember you and how lucky I was to know you." I watched Chris look up. I could see his eyes were getting slightly red. There was dead silence after Chris finished speaking. He bent down and grabbed a handful of dirt and tossed it onto the body. He turned away and walked back into the club house. Everyone stood for a moment and followed Chris's gesture and threw dirt on the body. Slowly everyone said their peice and filed into the main building.

It took about half an hour but with Neil's help we managed to fill the hole with dirt and place a few rocks to mark were Rosie was now buried. I looked up to see Neil looking in the distance around the large brick wall. I figured both our minds were in the same spot. What was waiting for us beyond the wall?

"Think the dead are out there?" I guess I must have startled Neil. He looked at me for a second and nodded.

"Not much we can fucking do about it at the momement even if there are any out there." He looked at me and then began to walk off.

I turned and figured I should thank him. "Hey, thanks for the help with Rosie". I watched as Neil turned back.

"You're welcome. Stay the fuck away from my sister!" I heard him say in a laid back calm way. He turned and camly walked back into the house. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to laugh or tell him to go fuck himself.

I turned back to look at Rosie's grave. I stood watching as the leaves began to slowly fall onto the small mound of dirt. I could see the sky was getting darker and the temperature was dropping. Suddenly out of nowhere I couldn't help but think of the ambulance. I drove the shovel down into the dirt beside Rosie's grave and began to walk out towards the front. I could feel the fall leaves crunching under my newly borrowed work boots. I couldn't help but think winter would be here soon. I had to laugh it had been five years since I had actually seen snow or enjoyed Christmas. I found my way out front and scanned the area to see if I had any company. No dead and no living around for the moment. I couldn't say why I needed to look. Maybe I just needed one last time to make it through this day. I mean after all everyone has their things that got them through the day. I sure as fuck had mine. I made my way over to the ambulance and opened the door. I half expected it to be clean and nice, but nothing had changed since yesterday. Blood still covered the floor the only thing that had changed was the covers on the stretcher had been buried with Rosie. I searched through the shelves for a few minutes before finding what I had been looking for. The little gray box that held what I needed. It was still unlocked and I opened it to find the little glass ampules broken. "For fuck sakes!" I threw the box against the one wall that was lined with shelves and sat down on the bench. It was then that I heard a familar voice.

"The drugs were used up yesterday when Tessa used them." I looked at the entrance surprised to see Kyra standing there. She held a cup of tea and wore one of the grounds people's uniform jackets. Suddenly it reminded me of how cold it was outside and that I only had a t-shirt and the hospital pants still on.

"How the fuck do you know what Tessa did?" I said as I stared down at Kyra, who put one eyebrow up and looked at me like I was an idiot.

"I've known Tessa for a very long time. We don't always need to speak to know what the other is doing. However, I do appricate the communication it makes the job easier. Plus, she told me about you what you said".

"What about Chris, does he know?" I wanted to know if I could still use this information. Chris seemed like the type who would not been so forgiving.

"Chris knows but he sure as hell doesn't want to talk about it. He saw her do it."

I could see her trying to warm her hands on her tea mug. "McCree just leave this whole thing with Rosie alone. If you go and bring this shit up with Chris then you are just going to start a fight. You spent all this time this morning lecturing us on how we need to stop fighting and start working together. If you start shit between Chris and Tessa you are nothing but a fucking hypocrite." She stepped away from the ambulance and took a long sip of her tea. She looked out in the distance toward the lake. I could see her face set and she seemed like she was trying to pick her words carefully. "McCree, what Tessa did wasn't right but it wasn't wrong either. She made a hard choice and one she has to live with. She went against everything she stands for yesterday in the back of that ambulance. I don't know if what she did was right and neither do you. What Tessa did isn't something I couldn't do. I do know that having Rosie get torn up by those things in some hospital or slowly die choaking on her own blood wasn't an option either".

I looked at Kyra for a moment, enjoying the peace and quiet. Finally, I stood up and walked out of the ambulance. Kyra stepped back and I felt a cold gust of wind hit my back. She took a sip of her tea and then spoke.

"McCree, I don't know what is going to happen. The one thing I do know is that we are living on borrowed time. I suggest you think long and hard about how you want to use this time. I can't speak for you McCree, but I hope my life counts for something."

I watched Kyra take one last sip of tea and turn and walk away. She reached the main building and opened the door. She waited for me but I just nodded to her to go in. The door slammed shut and another gust of wind hit my back.

I walked towards the edge of the building. The wind was rushing through the trees stripping them of their leaves. I turned and looked out toward the choppy lake. I couldn't help but think of what Kyra said. She was right; I did need to figure out how I wanted my last bit of time to go down. I ran through the questions in my head. So what the fuck did I want to happen? I knew for sure I didn't want to be fucking eaten by those things out beyond the wall. In truth I didn't know what I wanted to happen besides that. I was pretty happy not being in the fucking ambulance and having a warm bed to sleep in that was semi safe. As for what was important, I sure as fuck didn't know. I was being forced into sobreity, so I guess staying sober was important. I knew I would be fucking lying if I said these people were important. I sure as fuck wasn't a bleeding heart giving a shit about these people. I just didn't want to fucking die.

Another cold gust hit my back and went right through me. I turned and walked towards the door of the main building. I swung the door open and was hit by a wall of hot air. The t.v was on and Neil, Peaches and Dante were quietly sitting in front of it. I turned and locked the door behind me. I knew I couldn't answer all of Kyra's questions today. I knew I was still pretty fucked up. Think about Kyra's questions made me realize one thing. I had a second chance to make my life count for something.


	8. Family

**A/N: This chapter has been a long time coming. School has started again for me and the summer has gone by way too fast. I currently have this chapter and chapter 9 done. Chapter 8 is pretty much a filler chapter/character building chapter for Tessa. Chapter 8 is slow but chapter 9 will pick up. Chapter 9 should be up either tomorrow or Monday. Chapter 9 is very long and it was a beast to write. So get comfortable maybe grab a snack when you go to read it. I wanted to send a quick thank you to the following reviewers Technocide, Pinklittlewitch and Shadow Knight1121. Thank you for the reviews they get me motivated to write and reminds me that there are people who are enjoying the story. To everyone have a safe and fun Labour Day weekend. **

After we buried Rosie I didn't really feel a need to stick around. I walked inside the country club and sat down with Peaches who was ever vigilant in keeping up to date with the news. The day just seem to fade away, I guess I had become lost in watching the news too. It was surreal to see the world coming to an end all around us and ABC, NBC and CNN were all there to catch it and broadcast it. I felt sick watching images of bodies lining the streets or the dead chasing down people. I watched a group of cops marching towards the dead, and all I could think of is most of those people would be dead before I even sat down to dinner tonight. I think the most haunting image from that afternoon came from some footage shot in Dallas. The news had reported the military was having trouble containing all the little outbreaks as they called it in the suburbs. So the military asked the citizens of Dallas to go to "treatment" centers as they had begun calling them. The images of the people's faces were burned into my brain. The news stations showed people being herded into all these buildings. They had high metal fences set up with armed men lining them. The images were eerie in the fading light of the day in Dallas. The best way I could describe it was like watching cattle being heared into a slaughter house. You could see the look of panic on the faces of all these people. You could hear the screaming and the questions. I couldn't even begin to imagine the smell, the heat and the sense of clausterphobia that most of those people must have been feeling at that moment being crammed so close together. All these people being herded like cattle. I couldn't help but feel like I could almost smell the sweat, blood and shit. Watching all of this only took me back to the memory of Detroit a few days earlier and the treatment center there. I could only imagin what those people saw once they entered the building, realizing that the government had run out of options to keep us safe. The sickening realization that the governments only option was to put people down like rabid dogs. Visions of floors covered in blood and bodies piled high to the ceiling floated in my mind. I could see in my mind the people realizing what was about to happen. Maybe some tried to run, maybe others said their final goodbyes to their families or maybe a few tried to make a last stand. As I watched the news I finally had enough and just closed my eyes. I couldn't stand to watch this nightmare unfold anymore.

When I awoke about two hours later I could see from a small gap in the curtains that the sun had gone down. Kyra had tapped me on the shoulder to let me know dinner was ready. I walked slowly across the main lobby towards the dinning room. The main lobby was much darker then when we first had arrived. All the curtains had been shut and any areas where light could creep out had been covered. I managed my way to the dinning room only bumping into a small table. The dinning room had no windows, which allowed us the luxury of having lights on, however they were set so that they were dim. I sat down next to my brother Neil. Apprently both he and Dante had been busy cooking dinner, which consisted of Pasta that had been salvaged from what few dry goods were left in the building. One thing the country club did have was a very nice wine cellar which Neil had raided. I had to admit having wine with dinner was something that I think was needed by everyone. Overall, when one stops to think about things, our sitation really wasn't too bad for the moment. We still had power, clean water, the internet still worked and we had a semi safe shelter. In the back of my mind I realized all these luxuries were only temporary and it was only a matter of time before all these things disappeared for good. Another thought crept into my head as I sipped my wine, we would eventually have to move. This place wouldn't be safe forever. I pushed the thought out of my head. At the moment there was no way I could deal with having to run again.

We sat in silence for a better part of the dinner, but by the end mostly due to the wine people were talking. The topic of choice was of course going out and finding supplies. Everyone seemed to be in agreement that it had to be done. We couldn't all just sit here until the food ran out wearing the same clothes and stinking up the place. I took another sip of my wine and listen to Peaches plan out our first trip out.

"I printed out some maps off of goggle earth. There are a couple of properties about 10 miles down the road. From what I saw they are pretty spread out. People seem to like their privacy around here. Most of the places have a few achers of land. So I think we should be ok. The first house I looked at had a three garages and the place looked huge. Looks like it might have been a family home or somthing. I think we should start there." Peaches handed out a few maps she had printed off with a great bit of writing on the maps outlining the potential for useful items and the impressions she got from the houses.

After Peaches had shared her information with everyone we had to get to the next topic. Who would go on this little adventure? I could see people looking down at their hands or looking around the room. I couldn't blame anyone for not wanting to go. Sometimes it was just easier for someone else to take on the responsibility. We all had the need for the basics in this life, but we had all seen what those creatues out there could do to us. Finally a voice cut through the akward silence. I frankly didn't want to hear the voice but the words from McCree did make sense.

"We all know damn well no one wants to go on this fucking death march, but we need supplies. So now is the time to volunteer. Look you can go out and gather supplies and get killed or you can stay here and the dead could show up on our door step anyways. No matter what the choice there is still a risk invovled. We can't all go but we can't all stay here and do nothing either." I could see McCree looking around the group. Finally the silence broke and Dante was the first one to speak up.

"Well my ass might as well go! It's better then sittin around here doing nothing except waiting to die." After Dante I was surprise to see the next two hands go both Chris and McCree put their hands up.

I am not sure why to this day but out of nowhere I felt my hand go up. Looking back on it now I think it was because what Dante said made perfect sense. It was better to do something then just sit around doing nothing. I looked at the others and realized that it made perfect sense for them all to stay. Peaches was slowly become our brains/navigator through all of this. I knew Kyra needed to stay in case either Chris or myself were killed. Other things besides the dead could injure or kill us. Salvaging human life and having the medical skills to do it have always a valuble asset in the past but even more so now. I took one look at Neil and realized that watching his ex-wife and kid get torn apart had done a lot more then just leave him in shock. If he wasn't mentally stable he would only hold us back. As I looked around the table I could see the three other members of our little scavenger party were all giving me confused looks.

"Look, Peaches and Kyra need stuff only another woman can find or would think of. Plus I might as well get used to being around the dead. McCree you said it yourself, everyone has to learn how to fight. I might as well bite the bullet." I looked over at the other three members of our scouting party. The looks on their faces relaxed. I don't think they would ever admit it, but they knew I was right.

After it was agreed we would leave early in the morning when the sun was coming up. Our goal was to be done within two hours. During the course of the night we were all told to find weapons, proper foot wear and to get some rest. As the dinner wrapped up I helped Neil clear the table and do the dishes. I figured Dante had done a great job with the meal he might as well enjoy some well deserved time with Peaches.

Neil and I worked in silence loading the large industrial use dishwasher in the kitchen. I hated the silence and I knew that I had to get Neil to talk. I had never heard him so quiet before in all my life, and it truly scared me. I tried to make general conversation at first about how life had been since Chris and I had ended things, work, and of course a vacation that I had been planning on before this whole shit storm had blown into town. Finally out of nowhere he spoke.

"I let her fucking get torn to pieces by those things." I could see tears running down the side of his face and hear the anguish in his voice.

"Neil, what could you have done differently? You had no control over what was going to happen in that tunnel".

"I should have been with them. Instead I watched as she fell and they ripped my little girl from her arms. I didn't even try and fight. I just ran and got swept away with the crowd. I could hear her screams and I could hear her calling for me. I just kept running though." I could see that Neil was back in that tunnel revisiting that moment. I knew all too well that he had done nothing but revisit that memory every second since it happened.

"I'm sorry Neil, I am so sorry". In that moment I wished I had been better with words. I couldn't help but think back to all the people I had comforted over the years as a nurse. I don't know how but I had somehow always been able to handle these types of situations with grief and loss. Yet, now I stood talking to my own brother not knowing what to say to comfort him.

I watched Neil grab the last of the dishes from the sliding rack coming out of the dishwasher. We worked in silence placing dishes back to their appropriate spots and cleaning up the kitchen. I wanted to speak again, but I didn't want to add to his pain. I wanted to go over and give my brother a hug and tell him that things would be ok and that his daughter and his ex-wife were in a better place, but I couldn't. I would be lying if I did. I didn't know if things in this world would ever be ok. I didn't know if my neice was walking around as one of those things. The only thing I knew was that my brother had a piece of his heart missing. In that moment I felt the first bit of anger at god for all of this. Up until this point I really hadn't thought about the whole us and god relationship, but now I couldn't help but think about it. I wanted to know why this had all happened. I wanted to know why my neiece had to die and why when Neil's life was finally getting better everything was taken from him. Then another thought had popped into my head. What about Neil's girlfriend? Had he talked to her since all this happened? I head the last load of dishes finish up in the dishwasher. Neil turned and looked at me with this look of utter hopelessness in his eyes.

"Tess, what the fuck do you know about loss? You say you're sorry but do you even know what I am feeling right now"? Neil stepped back away from the dishwasher and leaned on the stainless steal prep table close by.

I couldn't believe that Neil was attacking me right now. I was family isn't that what most people needed in times like these? Now I stood feeling his anger for this tragedy hit me straight in the face. Anger and frustration started to rise up in me.

"Neil, are you fucking listening to yourself right now." I shouted. "Guess what! That wasn't just your daughter that died out there. She was my neice and I loved her. I am sorry that this happened I am sorry my words don't give you any measure of comfort! But there is not a goddamn thing I can do about any of this, and guess what you are not the only one hurting. You're not the only one who losted someone in the last two days. Kyra's entire family is dead and I don't even know who Peaches and Dante have lost. You implied that I didn't lose anything. Fuck you! Where are our parents right now? Where are all our friends? Do you think they made it? So don't tell me I didn't lose anyone. You're not the only one mourning here! Get your shit together because everyone else has had too. At least you have some family left. I am still here." After I finished screaming at Neil he simply turned and walked out of the room.

I finished up a few small things in the kitchen and then decided to look for supplies. It turned out to be a far more challenging task then what I thought it would be. I really didn't know what weapon I needed. It's not everyday you find yourself figuring out the best ways to kill a human being or at least a semblance of one. The country club itself have very little inside in the way of weapons to use to crush bones. I knew their might be some outside. I had noticed a posting in one of the offices that said minor construction would be going on the starting Oct 17th. My instincts had me thinking maybe some of the workers had brought some of their equipment in earlier to prepare for the work. When I reached the other side of the club my gut feeling had been right. I knew that at least one thing the workers had to bring in could be useful for me. The only problem was the tools were located outside. I could see nothing outside other then the tools and a few other pieces of construction eqiupment that I had no idea what these things might be. No dead seemed to be lurking around, but still I lingered trying to work up some courage to step outside. I grinned for a moment. It hadn't even been one day and I was already breaking some rules. When I finally spotted what I wanted a sledge hammar leaning up against an old truck I quickly ran out. I could feel the fear rushing through me. It reminded me of that fear when you are a small child. You know you have to go to the bathroom but its dark. So you make a choice you either go or pee the bed. I guess tonight I had choosen not to pee the bed. I ran like that small child hoping that all the horrible things that hide in the dark would not catch me. I grabbed the hammar and a few other items and decided to call it a night.

I left my findings in the main hall downstairs. I guessed the dead were probably not going to show tonight seeing as how they were still at a BBQ in downtown Detroit from what I got from the news earlier. I could see Kyra was sleeping along with everyone else. Neil however was the exception and I could tell that he had not returned to the room tonight. I walked the halls until I hit a small libary. The room like everything else in the club was cherry wood and old money. The lights were off and I could see Neil sitting on the ledge of the window staring out into the night. I grabbed a chair and I as I moved around I was filled with the scent of leather and old books. I sat down and looked out the window. I wasn't sure how I was going to start this conversation with him. I was still angry from the fight with him earlier. Everyone was hurting but if we didn't put our pain behind us for now we would lose sight of what is ahead of us, a very long fight for survival. I wasn't sure how long I sat with Neil before he finally broke the silence.

"Have you talked to mom and dad at all lately?" Neil asked I could see him looking at me hoping that I wouldn't bring up his daughter again and maybe changing the subject might work. The subject of our parents was a sore one for me. Thinking back to our fight earlier I couldn't help but feel like a hypocrite when it came to mourning our parents. The reality was I hadn't talk to mom in almost two months and dad six. I wasn't sure what kind of daughter that made me. Some might say shitty while others might say I had my reasons. I knew that I hadn't talked to either one of them because I needed a break from them. I couldn't believe that at this point in my life I would need a break from my parents. I answered Neil not letting the silence get to long. "No, what about you"?

"No, I haven't spoken to either one of them for the last 3 months." I couldn't help feel the bitter sweetness in the all of this. I'm not sure why but sometimes you just know. I knew both my parents were gone. My dad had lived a rough life and it showed with his arthritis and various other health problems and my mother wasn't much better. I didn't even want to try and imagine them in those herds of people or hiding at home waiting for the door to breakdown and have those fucking things inside their houses with them.

"Do you think we should call them?" I looked at Neil like he was out of his mind. Hell would the phones even work anymore? "I still have my phone on me. I have had it off the last day or so to save the battery." I just gave a quick nodd to him, thinking might as well try. I watched him put the phone up to his ear. I could hear the phone ringing to my mom's house and finally the grim confirmation when her answering mechine picked up. The same scene played out with my father at his home. I knew my dad well enough to know that he probably tried to leave town. He had a cabin in Northern Michigan and I couldn't help but hope that maybe he made it.

As for my mother I tried desparately to push the image out of my head, but all I could see was her. All I could see was her in her home locking the doors and hiding in her room until the inevitable came. She was the type of person you just hated to have in an emergency. She could never handle stuff like that. Instead she always froze or did the opposite of what commonsense would dictate. I knew if the military had probably been at her door she wouldn't have answered. She hated the government and didn't trust them. Both my parents frustrated me, that fact I couldn't deny. Yet despite all of these issues I still loved them and they mattered to me. I knew that in this life you only ever get two parents. At this moment I couldn't help but wish desparetly that my mother was here to hold me and tell me everything would be ok.

Neil turned his eyes away from the window and looked me straight in the eye. I couldn't help but be caught off guard by what he had said next. "I don't want you to go on that trip tomorrow. I don't want to loose anymore family." Neil's words shocked me simply because all my life he had never told me not to do something. Even when he knew I was making a mistake he never said a word. He told me once that our mistakes are the only way we learn, so we do better the next time around.

"I can't not go Neil", I said rubbing my eyes as I could feel exhaustion starting to creep up on me. "I made a promise and I need to stick to it. This is the only way I am going to learn how to live in this world. We need food, clothes medical supplies. Besides I need clothes I smell like ass and blood right now."

Neil stood up and leaned against the wall. "Are you shitting me right now? You want to go out into a living dead infested town just so you can get some new clothes? Have you lost your fucking mind?"

I sunk back into the chair trying to figure out what to say next. "What do you want me to do Neil? What if we are on our own one day and we have to survive. If were lucky enough to live that long. If I don't learn some skills then I will die sooner rather then later out there. Get a clue the luxury of dying of old age is gone for us now. We are all going to die at the hands of those fuckig things out there. It is just a matter of when." I felt myself getting annoyed with Neil. I was scared enough to go out there as it is and he was not helping my confidence right now. I stood up and began to walk away towards the door. I was going tomorrow no matter what.

As I reached the door I stopped and turned back towards Neil. "Look Neil, time isn't on our side anymore. We need to learn how to survive and we need to do it fast. I am not going to have other people go and put their lives at risk for supplies so I can be a little more comfortable. We are a group now and we are in this together. We either walk this road together or we can walk the road to our graves alone." I turned and walked out wondering if I would ever see my brother again.


	9. Belonging

**A/N: Hi everyone! First I would like to thank those who reviewed chapter 8. Chapter 9 is a very long chapter. To those who have medical knowledge there will be a medical issue addressed in this chapter. Please keep in mind that I am writing for people who may not have encountered this health problem or have limited medical knowledge. Plus, I am just being lazy and probably missed a few key points. That being said please resist the urge to nit pick the medical stuff. I am feeling bad as it is, because I had promised to get a few more chapters out this summer. However, chapter 9 was tough to write as I needed some time to get into the McCree frame of mind. Get comfortable and I hope this is an enjoyable read. Please no flames.**

When I was in prison I had been lucky enough to to have a cell with a window. I would wake up in the morning early and read or just lay their in bed thinking. It was the time before the sun would rise and it was also the time when it was most peaceful and quiet in the prison. The noise never really stopped. There were always assholes banging on their cell doors or trying to piss off the guards, but that hour or so before sunrise always seemed to be calm down enough to be bearable. My window faced east in the direction of where the sun would rise. I would sit in those last few minutes before the light would come through my window. I would sit and that is when things all hit me. Prison was a place of nothingness, where a person's life was meaningless and disposable. Yet, when I looked out my window, I always had a gut feeling that this shit, this life in prison was only temporary.

Now as I lay in bed looking at the clock with the bright red numbers showing 5:30am, I had another gut feeling. I had a feeling of despair. I looked at my window which faced east but it was too early yet to have the sunlight coming through. I could feel something inside me wanting to come out. I knew today was the day I had to prove myself. I knew each person in this group did not want me here. Up to this point the fact everyone in the group hated me did not bother me. However, having the knowledge that I was not wanted here only seem to make me start to feel something I had never known before, a true sense of being alone. These people saw me for what I was, an asshole. I hated to admit it, they were right. I had been one all of my life and now I was at a point where I knew I could change, but did I want too? Even if I did would these people ever see beyond what I my past?

I swung my legs over the bed and walked over to grab the pair of old work boots I had found. In a strange way I was happy to be going out on this supply run. At least I would be able to get out of the pajama pants and into some real clothes. Plus, this little test run would be a good way to see if we could handle our business out there in the world. I fucking hoped things didn't go to shit today. We would need to hit bigger targets in the next few days. We would need to go into town and hit up the stores their. I guess for now the homes of rich assholes would have to due.

I laced up the boots and grabbed the the old t-shirt I had been wearing with the country clubs logo on it. I felt myself loose a little bit of my balance. I put my hand out to the wall to steady myself. I took a moment to thank god the dead had decided to rise during the time when I was finishing up my treatment rather then at the start. It had been two days and I was still having withdrawls, however they were not as bad as the first day. My body was very slowly getting used to the idea of having nothing in it drugwise. Now it was convincing my brain to follow. Drugs had been part of my life before prison. In prison I had nothing but time, and prison time can have you seeing your fuckups in a whole new light. I knew then that I wanted to be done with the shit in my system, if anything for the sake of an appeal and maybe a chance at parole. I felt a smirk come across my face. At least now I didn't have to worry about facing a parole board who would tell me to go fuck myself. Now, that I was free and almost sober, I was starting to realize I needed something else in this life that would make me want to stay sober. I would never admit it to anyone but the last few days had made life interesting. Funny to say the world ending was interesting. The truth was the dead were just that, dead. It was the people I had been around the last two days that made things interesting. They talked about normal things like family, work and shitty gas prices. I didn't have to worry about somebody stabbing me or trying to fuck me. There was just something about being around normal people that was starting to slowly to push out all the useless shit that had once been in my life. This wanting to be around people again was a new and exciting experience for me. Maybe there was a chance people would see me differently. The tattos would be hard to hide, but maybe if I met survivors I could convince people I wasn't a biker or a convict. Maybe other survivors would look at me and think I was a factory worker or a trucker or something. Hell, maybe I could someday have Tessa would look at me and see something else. It made me want to work at staying sober and take advantage of the new chance I had here in this moment in time. I still wasn't sure if I wanted to be apart of this group. They hated me, but despite the lack of trust they had been open to my suggestion the other day. I couldn't help but think that had to count for something and maybe I might have a chance here.

I made my way downstairs almost walking right into Kyra. I quickly nodded and made a quick appology. I made my way down to the dinning room where the smell of coffee greeted me. I sat down and the others slowly made their way in. Everyone seemed to have the same look of exhaustion. No one talked during the meal at least not with words. The body language at the table spoke for them. Tessa and Chris sat close but not so close that they were touching. The looks they exchanged with each other were cold. Dante and Peaches seemed to talk softly and I doubted anyone noticed that they were holding each other's hands. I could see they were people who loved each other but didn't advertise it for everyone to see. Next, I looked over to see Kyra. She ate quietly and had a look that put her miles away from everyone in the room. I could only guess that she was thinking about her husband and two boys. I remember the first night here hearing Kyra crying on Tessa's shoulder once we had settled into the country club. I doubt she had made peace with losing her family but she was clearly managing the best she could. Finally, I looked to Neil. I had overheard him and Tessa fighting in the libaray. I couldn't help but get an uneasy feeling about Neil. The guy had lost his kid and had some strong signs that he was not holding up. I felt relieved when he had decided to not join us on this supply run. I grabbed my cup of coffee enjoying every sip like it might be my last.

I looked back over to Tessa. I could see she was busy speaking with Kyra. I took this moment while she was not watching to check her out more. I was surprised at how small she was when I had grabbed her in the hospital. I watched as her lips moved while she spoke to Kyra. They looked soft and inviting. I couldn't help think of the days I had spent in the hospital. Tessa had helped me through alot, and I was lucky to have that chance because of her. It was strange all these new sober feelings inside. Now one minute I struggled between wanting to call her a fucking cunt for taking the morphine away and fighting me. The next minute I wanted nothing more then to be near her. Before prison I had taken human contact for granted. I had ignored the few good family memebers I had, that had taken the time to visit occasionally. I had taken people's kindness and trust for granted. I had treated the women I had been fucking, dating and engaged too like shit. Then one day in a matter of moments someone decides you cannot have those simple things for the rest of your life. Suddenly those simple things like physical contact, conversation or kindness become more important then you ever realized.

I would be lying if I said I didn't think of Tessa and wanted things from her, but over the last few days I had made some decisions. I knew I wanted her and I doubted that would ever change, but more then ever I knew I needed to leave her alone for the moment, for both our sakes. She had given me back something I had thought I had lost so long ago. I owed her more then what I had given her so far. So I knew that more then ever I needed to focus on surviving and finding a way to something better. I looked away at Tessa but something inside said she would never be to far from my mind despite my best efforts.

I watched the goodbyes from the doorway. They were brief and straight and too the point. We were already burning daylight way to fast. We needed to make the most of our time today to get supplies and safely make it back before dark. Truthfully, I was relieved the goodbyes were short. I think everyone knew that goodbyes only drove home the point that some of us might not return from this trip. I watched Tessa and Dante finish up their goodbyes. I couldn't help but be surprised by the envy that I allowed myself to feel just for a moment. Maybe it was what was left of the drugs in my system fucking with my head, or maybe it was being around all these people the last few days. I couldn't help but envy the fact that both Tessa and Dante had people who gave a shit about them. I couldn't help but wonder if I had ever had that kind of loyalty. I thought I had it at one point from my club. Then fucking reality and prison came into the picture and truth is an ugly whore. I had been fucking stupid going in to do time. I thought they would take care of me, I thought I would have had support. The reality was once I was on lockdown everyone I had ever known had forgotten I even existed. Five years waiting for somebody anybody to visit and give me the time of day. At first there had been a few visitors, mostly family but then that stopped. I had expected my club brothers to visit. I had been mistaken, not even one of them who had pledged loyalty to everyone in the club had shown up in the five years I had been down. I could feel a new sensation growing in me, bitterness. I turned away and began to walk towards the ambulance. Some of these people barely new each other, but they had more loytaly to each other then I ever had from my club who I had spent close to a decade with. I turned my head not wanting to look at what I had never had.

I walked out and was hit by the chill in the air. The disel engine was going strong and I got into the back of the ambulance. I could see Tessa and Dante running towards the amublance. Tessa got into the back and Dante climbed into the front seat with Chris. I was surprised to see Tessa sitting on the bench. I guess she thought I was the lesser of two evils.

Our drive to our first house lasted about half an hour, of which the first twenty minutes for me was spent staring at the ceiling or out the back windows. The view wasn't much from the back windows as the star of life emblem covered both windows. Finally, Tessa broke the silence. To my surprise her voice wasn't its usual "I'm a huge bitch" tone, I had gotten use too.

"How have you been feeling McCree?" She looked dead straight at me. I couldn't shake this feeling of feeling very uncomfortable. Before, there had always been a door between us. Suddenly I couldn't help become painfully aware that the burn scars on the side of my face and down my neck were extremly visable. At this moment I really wanted to look down at my feet.

"I have just had a few shakes, some dizzy spells. Feet are healing up alright. Chirs and Kyra took care of them yesterday." I watched Tessa's face. She seemed to be satisfied with my answer. I wasn't really lying to her. The drugs were still in my system but the withdrawls had calmed down. I couldn't help notice her look towards where the gray box and then towards the stretcher, which was still bloody. A look of disgust and something else I couldn't place came across her face. I didn't want to go back to a few days ago and I knew neither did she. I spoke again to try and break the tension.

"Why the fuck do you give a shit anyways?" I let out a sigh and sounded exhausted trying to sound like an asshole.

"McCree, you're my patient and making sure you are healing is what a good nurse does and what a decent human being does. Besides, if you are not healthy then you become a liability to the group." She looked away from me towards the back windows. I looked down to see she had found a sledgehammer as her weapon. I thought it was sort of funny the thought of her with her size trying to swing that damn thing at one of the dead.

"Nice sledgehammer there sweetheart" I said trying to piss her off, just for shits and giggles. She looked at me and smirked.

"Nice crowbar douchtard!" She said with a smirk and a small smile. It was the first time I had ever seen her smile. It caught me off guard in a good way. I turned and looked away and couldn't help feelin the corners of my mouth turn up forming a small smile too.

I could feel the ambulance slowing to a stop and Chris cutting the engine. The doors slammed and Tessa and I made our way out of the ambulance. When I stepped out my eyes were struck by the bright sun. Eventually I regained focus and immediately a massive house with the three car garage caught my eye. The house had beautiful stone work and a nicely landscaped front yard. The front porch had a few fall decorations scattered across it. My eyes continued to scann around until I finally looked at the driveway. I could see a black Silverado truck and a large pink Hummer with the licence plate "_brit brit's"_ on it. I felt a huge pain in my heart seeing a perfectly good Hummer being ruined with ugly pink paint. This was clearly a sign of a young spoiled rich girl with daddy issues. I felt a smirk creep across my face as I thought about all the rich bitches I had fucked, young and old all with daddy or husband issues. They were always willing to spread their legs and please. That's what I loved about those women they would spit on me if they could but in the end they couldn't resist a guy like me, a complete asshole. It was a good memory for a few moments, but reality came back. I looked around to see that the property itself was large and was bordered by thick woods. I couldn't help be a little awe struck as to what money could buy people.

We made our way slowly to the back of the house, which suprisingly didn't have a fence around the backyard. As we walked I could see a patio and a fairly large pool. As far as I could tell the pool had been drained and covered for the winter. We walked towards the back door and looked in the window. The door was locked but we were able to break the glass window and unlock it. I was surprised to hear no alarm go off. I wondered why somebody with this much money would not have set the alarm. I figured with everything going on they would be worried about looters. I could only guess maybe the owners had left in a hurry and forgot or had never left at all.

We entered the house and into a small mud room from what I could tell. We slowly made our way down a short hall to enter the kitchen. The kitchen much like the outside of the house was impressive and reeking of money. The kitchen had what looked to be oak cabinets, granite counter tops and of course all the stainless steel appliances money could buy. I looked over to see Chris looking at a bunch of keys hanging on a key holder on the wall.

"I think we should take one of the cars. If the ambulance craps out on us we will be screwed." I looked over at Chris as he said this. Most of the time I thought the man was a tool, but he did have a point. If the ambulance had problems we would need another vehicle. Seconds later Tessa used the oppertunity to get a quick jab in at me.

"Yeah, McCree can have the pink hummer" Tessa didn't even look at me in the eye as she said that. She seemed to be scanning the room and outside for any unwelcomed guests.

"Well, aren't we the fucking comedian today! Who removed the bitch stick from your ass?" Tessa finally stopped and looked towards my direction and shot me the finger and rolled her eyes at me.

"McCree stop pissing Tessa off. Tessa stop taking shots at McCree or we can go the fuck home. We have shit to do and we don't have a lot of time. Could you two please start looking for guns, food,and anything else that might be useful? Dante and I are going to get the truck." Chris turned around annoyed and went out the back door, leaving me and Tessa alone in the kitchen. We both slowly made our way out into the hallway following it to the front entrance. To our left was a dinning room and to our right was a living room. Marble floors covered most of the main entrance. Tessa turned to me looking at me trying to decide if she wanted to stay with me or go. I saw her look away for a moment up towards the stairs and finally back to me.

"I think I will start upstairs see what I can find any first aid stuff in the bathrooms". I could see she was hesitating to go upstairs alone, but I knew she was a stubborn bitch and wouldn't ask me to go.

She began to walk up the stairs when my hand shot out and grabbed her forearm. I could see a look of panic across her face. "Do you want me to go with you?" I asked her and the panic seemed to disappear from her face.

"No, I think I will be alright". She pulled her arm out of my hand and made her way slowly up the stairs. I stood for a moment watching Tessa go up the stairs and wondering if I should have let her go up there alone. I tore my eyes away from her and turned and walked down the hall. I couldn't help think what a stubborn bitch that woman was.

The supply trip for the most part went smooth. We had been at the house for almost 45 minutes and no sign of the dead. We were constantly watching the windows and the forests around the house for any signs of them. As the time passed everything seemed strangely quiet and calm. I could feel in the pit of my stomach something was about to happen. I figured in this new world, no day would ever be peaceful again. I handed Dante the last few guns which made up the last bit of stuff to be loaded into the truck. Luck had been with us because the Silverado gas tank had been full. Also the house had not lost power which meant both the freezer and the fridge still had food in them. We were able to gather a decent supply of canned goods, meats, some fruits and vegitables that had not rotted, and a few dry goods. I figured we should enjoy this food supply now. Fresh fruits and vegitables would probably be a thing of the past soon. I felt some relief that we had found some weapons as well. I had never felt afraid of the dead. The majority of the dead were slow moving except for the fresh ones or the more intact ones. The weapons now just gave me a sense of having the odds evened out a bit more. The previous owners also had a healthy supply of hunting rifels, one shot gun and three handguns. I figured we would find a decent amount of guns here. If there was anything I had learned over the years of robbing people with money it was that most of them enjoyed hunting for the ego boost, and they were fucking paranoid as fuck and usually had at least one handgun in their homes. I could only figure this asshole must have been pretty well off to have this many guns. On top of everything Tessa had found a decent amount of clothes and other goods for us. We were still on a limited amount of time and frankly I was happy this little test run would be done and over with so we could leave. I could see Chris and Dante loading up the last few things into both the truck and ambulance when I heard Tessa scream upstairs.

I dropped everything raced up the stairs searching each room of the massive top floor of the house. I finally found Tessa in a very pink room. She was holding the side of her face trying to talk to a young teenage girl who was screaming at her. The teenage girl charged at Tessa and I quickly scooped her up and planted her ass on the bed.

"What the fuck is going on here?" I screamed at Tessa.

Tessa let her hand down from her face and I gave some space to the teenage girl, who I could only assume was "_brit brit"_. The girl was giving Tessa a look like she wanted to rip her fucking eyes out. I turned back to Tessa to see what this was all about.

"I was searching the room for anything useful. I saw her hiding in the closet and the stupid twat jumped out and slapped me!" I did my best to hold back my laughter but I could feel my face turning red.

"Language princess" I said to Tessa who was trying to burn a hole through my head with her eyes. I turned and looked at the girl who couldn't have been more then 15 or 16. She seemed to be calming down and was now sobbing. I turned back to Tessa looking at her trying to figure out what to do. I wasn't good with this kind of thing. Finally after a few moments I waved Tessa over. She sat down next to the shaking girl. I could see Tessa was struggling not to want to scream at the girl. She looked down at the sobbing girl and the anger seem to leave her face and was replaced by a semi understanding look.

"Look I am sorry if I scared you. I didn't see you in the closet and we didn't think anyone was in the house." I could see Tessa's words were calming the girl but she clearly still didn't trust us.

"Honey, what is your name? Where are your parents?" Tessa asked the girl who seemed to be trying to decide if she could trust Tessa. Finally, after a moment the girl started to sob and tell us her story.

It took about ten minutes to get the whole story to come out, but I wasn't surprised by it. The girl who's name was Brittney had lost both her parents and her older brother. As of early this morning her older sister had also gone missing as well. After Brittney calmed down she clung to Tessa explaining how her parents believed that the military would save them, but they still held onto the idea that money would be worth something in this new world. When I heard that I couldn't help but shake my head. Fucking typical that rich people to throw money at problems. So at the last second her parents left her and her siblings behind so they could go into town and get some things out of the safety deposit boxes. That had been three days ago. Brittney explained that her sister, brother and a few landscaping people were all that had been left. The second day the house was attacked ending with the death of her brother and the landscapers. She explained that most of the dead had returned to the forest after their feeding frenzy and she had not seen any of them in the last day or so.

When Tessa had calmed Brittney down enough we managed to walk her down the stairs. As we walked I couldn't help feel that knot in my stomach again. It made perfect sense that the dead had left the house at about the same time was what Brittney's sister had. At this point I wouldn't have been surprised if we had found her car just down the road. I would have to tell Tessa about this. We didn't need this girl having a breakdown. As we reached the bottom of the stairs and turned to go down the hall towards the back door, that's when it happened. The knot in my stomach finally came undone.

We passed by the living room, which had the curtains closed. As we walked past it, I could hear a low gurggling sound. We tried to pick up the pace and at that moment one of the missing landscapers came walking out of the living room. He looked to be a kid maybe twenty or so. I could see parts of his face scratch but what caught my eye was the missing parts of his stomach. So much of his intestinal tract had been ripped out you could see clear through to the lower part of his spine and remaining muscle. He reached Tessa first trying to grabb onto her arm. I watched as she let go of Brittney's arm moving her arm away and swinging out at the dead landscaper. The first shot was fast and hard sending him stumbling back a few feet. Tessa stayed on him and with all the force she had swung out and cracked the landscaper's skull. He fell to the floor with a sickening thud. I turned back around to see Brittney starting to panic. Another of the dead landscapers was coming out of the living room slowly. Brittney pulled away from my grip and began to sprint near the door.

"Brittney, no don't go out there", but it was too late. She was in full sprint towards the door. Tessa and I ran leaving behind the dead landscapers in the living room. I turned to see them following us. As we reached the back door which was wide open, I could see the truck and the ambulance were no where to be found.

"Where the fuck are they", I screamed at Tessa.

"What the fuck do you mean they aren't there", Tessa screamed at me. I could see she was just as pissed and surprised as I was.

We had almost hit the edge of the door when we saw Brittney screaming and crying running towards the pool and the open backyard. I could see more of those fucking things stumbling out of the woods towards us. Brittney kept running and was near the edge of the pool. She turned to look back for a second towards me and Tessa for a second. It was then that a hand shot out from under the pool cover and grabbed her ankle and pulled. I watched as Brittney fell hitting her face hard on the pavement near the pool edge. I could see bits of teeth and blood on the pavement. One of the dead began to bit her ankle while more hands began to pull her under the pool cover. Tessa ran over and before I knew it was in a tug of war with the dead trying to grab Brittney. I quickly ran over and grabbed Tessa by the waste and pulled her away. As I turned I could see Brittney being pulled under the pool cover. Truth be told I was happy I did not see what happened next. I planted Tessa on the ground and grabbed her arm and began running. I could hear Tessa sobbing and screaming about how Brittney was just a kid. I had no time for fucking sympathy. The girl had been bitten and there was not a goddam thing either one of us could do about it. As we ran past the pool onto the grass it was then that I heard the roar of the disel engine. I could see Chris and Dante driving towards us mowing down the dead as they went. They pulled up towards us.

"Get the fuck in!" I heard Chris scream at us. Tessa got in the ambulance and I got in the truck with Dante. We drove across the lawn away from the house. I looked back through the mirror and saw the some of the dead slowly walking towards us while others walked into the house. We had gotten lucky to say the least.

We drove for about an hour in the opposite direction of the country club. It was late morning and we still had time to hit another house. The sun had faded and the sky was clouding over and getting dark. As we drove a saw a few cars parked at the side of the road. Some seemed intact while others showed the usual signs of a struggle and judging from the amount of blood the side of the car I doubted the people inside had been able to put up much of a fight. I turned my gaze away not wanting to think about what might have happened to the people who had left their cars and chanced it in the woods, or those who stayed in their cars to wait things out. These people were long dead and not my fucking problem.

I turned away from looking outside and looked towards Dante. I still wasn't sure to make of him. My instincts from prison had told me to slit this motherfucker's throat many times in the last three days. However, my survival instincts were telling me some things needed to be left in prison. He had turned out to be reasonable and able to hold his own in a fight. I looked towards Dante deciding that for now differences could be set aside for the moment. As I looked towards Dante and couldn't help noticing something seemed off. His head seemed to sway back and forth every now and then. He looked clammy and he was starting to look pale. I wasn't sure if I wanted to say anything but watching his head sway back and forth was enough for me.

"You feel ok?" I asked hoping he might admit something was wrong. I wasn't lucky enough though.

"No man, I'm fine." I looked at him again deciding whether this fight was worth it. However, remembering the cars at the side of the road I decided not to take chance.

"Dante, you're looking pale and calmy. You're swirving on the road, man. I'm not getting into a fucking car accident because your ass wants to drive". This clearly didn't help and Dante went from annoyed to pissed off.

"Shut the fuck up honkey! I'm black I don't get fucking pale!" Dante seemed to swirve the truck more as he shot me the finger.

"Look in the fucking mirror asshole! Your skin is flushed and sweaty! You can't even keep the fucking truck straight. Stop the fucking truck!" Dante kept driving for a few minutes more. I could see he was thinking trying to decide what his options were. Finally he honked the horn twice and slowed the truck down to a stop. The ambulance slowed and both Chris and Tessa walked out with weapons in hand. I got out of the truck shaking my head. _Fucking fantastic now the dead are going to hear us for miles around"._

Chris was the first to reach us. "You two had better have a damn good reason why you are honking the fucking horn and drawing attention to us"! I walked straight over to Chris and grabbed his arm and walked him backwards a few feet.

Chris looked like he was ready to fight this one out, so I made what I had to say quick and to the point. "Dante doesn't look too good. He's not staying on the fucking road and I don't feel like being a buffet for the dead. So go fucking check him out please". I let go of Chris's arm and we walked back towards Dante and the truck. I looked around the road. The passenger side faced a sheer rock wall while on the other side there seemed to be some sort of hill that led to a field. The road seemed clear at both ends so I felt the tension ease up a bit. Chris seemed to be calming down as we reached Dante who was already speaking to Tessa.

"Fuck! Why did you not tell us this before?" I could see Tessa grabbing the bridge of her nose and closing her eyes.

"Would you people have even helped me and Peaches if I had told you! Fuck bitch! It's not everyday white people just pick up stray black people in the middle of a riot. We needed to survive just as much as you. If I had told you I had diabetes you would have treated me and Peaches like a goddam burden. Besides, it's not like we had time to share this kind of personal information in our fucked up group sessions we have been having the last three days! Would you have even stopped to help us?" I could see Dante trying to stand up but stumbling along the way. I walked over and put my arm out to steady him. I looked over to Tessa who looked in absolute shock at Dantes after what he had said.

"You held a gun to us! Did you think we would have let you in the ambulance with a smile and good faith?" I watched as Tessa expression change from concern to frustation.

"Would you have let us in?" I could see Dante was going to push the issue.

"I DON'T FUCKING KNOW!" Tessa finally snapped back at him. Dante continued to stand staring at her. "I don't fucking know. It's my job to care for people not die with them. I can't give you an answer. I truly don't fucking know. I know that seeing you two with guns scared the hell out of me. I was a little more worried about being shot and left to be ripped apart by those fucking things. In the end we didn't leave you and Peaches behind, did we! So take that answer for what it fucking is!" I could see Tessa eyes starting to get red as she looked up to the sky for a second.

"Alright, enough with this racial sensitivity bullshit. Guess what it's not about fucking race anymore. It's about the fact that we are all equally fucked now. It is either we stick together and work as a unit or we can kiss our asses' goodbye. Get your shit together, what is done is done." I found myself standing between Tessa and Dante at this point. I could feel their eyes on me again and suddenly. They both looked shocked for a moment at what I had just said. I looked at each of them again and they seemed to be looking at me for some sort of direction.

I looked over at Tessa for a moment then back to Dante who seemed to be trying to stay still and calm down. "So what the fuck is the problem?"

Tessa turned back to face me and Dante. She looked like she was about to scream. "Dante is a type 2 diabetic and fucked up his insulin and meds today." She looked over at Chris who seemed to be wearing the same look as her. "Chris if you have a glucose monitor in the ambulance can you please get it." Tessa leaned up against the side of the truck.

"I have one of those pre-loaded insulin things, it's the long acting shit." Dante said quietly. I could see him trying to reach the side of his jean pocket. He pulled it out and I quickly grabbed the insulin away from him and handed it to Tessa.

It took about fifteen minutes but Chris and Tessa checked his blood sugar and did whatever the hell it was they did for him. I didn't understand this medical shit and I didn't feel like learning today. I just wanted to get the hell out of here. Tessa and Chris both had a nervous look on their face that I hadn't seen since the city. Normally I wouldn't have given two shits about this but I had a feeling there was a bigger problem.

"What the fuck is the problem with you two?" I asked somehow having the feeling I really did not want to know the answer.

Tessa looked over at Chris and I could see they were deciding who was going to be captin of the ship we were sailing up shit river. Tessa finally mumbled something to Chris and walked over to us.

"McCree do you know anything about diabetics?" I shook my head at Tessa as she asked that question. Tessa stepped back from me. I could see she was thinking. She pulled some stray hair out of her face and tucked it back behind her ears. I could see she was trying to pick her words. She pursed her lips then looked up at me and spoke. I found myself staring a little too hard but her words shook me out of it.

"Well, the good news is Dante was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes last year, he's 37 which is good he is still young and he isn't obese. This means he can manage his diabetes with some lifestyle changes. He's been been managing his diabetes with oral meds and a long acting insulin which has been put into portable pens. They don't need to be refridgerated which is lucky for us. The bad news is both Chris and I don't know how bad Dante diabetes is. Dante just fucked up today and messed up his meds. However, this could be a sign of a larger problem in the future. The bigger problem is diabetes can change with time. There may be the possibility that Dante will need different types of insulin in the future to control his diabetes. This becomes a problem because that means we have to hit up drug stores and hospitals. Another problem is insulins needs to be refridgerated. Right now we have power at the club but we don't know if the town of Litton has power. Plus, we don't know how long the power will last before everything shut's down. I'm guessing if we have power, the town probably has power still. Which means the insulin in the pharmacys and the town hospital are probably still good. However, once the power goes the insulins in the fridges will be useless. I know that Detroit's hospitals at least some of them have back up generators. If the power goes in Litton then that means we have to travel further to keep a supply of the type of insulin we need. That could mean a trip into Detroit." I watched as Tessa walked away and stand near the guard rail crossing her arms.

"I'm so sorry about all of this", I heard Dante say in the background. I could see he was coming around and seemed a little more alert. I looked at the man and for the first time in a long time for a second felt pitty for him. It wasn't everyday you tell a group of people that in order for you to live they might have to die.

"So what do we do now? Do we go into the town and try and find the insulin we need?" Tessa turned around to face me. I could see she was trying to figure out what our next move was. I looked past her to see Chris staring over the guard rails. A slight breeze began to move and suddenly I was hit in the face with the smell of pure rot would be the best way to describe it.

Tessa looked up at me. "I don't think there is any point right now. Dante said he has the meds he needs back at the club. We also have a lot of stuff we need to get back to the club. I think the best thing is to talk to Peaches about this and go from there."

I nodded at Tessa and walked towards Chris who had now gone over the guard rail. He stood staring at something. As I approached I heard Tessa behind me. When I reached the guard rail I couldn't believe what I saw. The smell was too much and I found myself vomiting. I could hear Tessa gasp behind me. I looked up from vomiting. I let my eyes follow the forest floor which was covered in gold, orange and red leaves. My eyes moved slowly until they came upon a very large pit. In that pit stacked in neat little rows were bodies. I could see the bodies were showing small signs of rot. I turned to look to see Chris put his dark blue jacket sleeve up to his nose. Slowly he stepped over the guard rail and made his way towards the bodies.

"What the hell are you doing Chris?" I could see Tessa walking over screaming.

"I don't think these bodies are like the ones in Detroit, they actually are dead it looks like." I could see Chris making his way down the hill faster.

"Are you insane? I think we have reached are stupid shit quota for the day". I could see Tessa go over the railing next.

"I just want to see something." I could see Chris picking up even more speed down the hill.

"Yes Chris, great idea, lets go look at the dead things! Are you fucking stupid. Just leave it alone." Tessa was not far behind him now with a look on her face that said she was going to raise hell. I looked over at Dante who shook his head and mumbled something about crazy white people and no common sense.

When we reached the bottom of the hill I could see Chris's suspicions were right. None of the bodies were moving around like the ones in Detroit. Instead each body seemed to have same looke, a bullet in the head and old dark blood leaking from their eyes and ears. I watched as Chris took a latex glove out of his side pocket of his pants. He walked over to one of the bodies and reached into his pocket and took out the person's wallet. He did this down the row to about seven more bodies before he spoke. I looked over to see Tessa taking out a glove and repeating what Chris had done. I could see the look of disgust on her face as she looked at each driver's licence.

A look of pure fear in Chris's eyes as he placed one of the bodies wallet's back. He turned and looked at me. "All the driver's licences have Chicago addresses on them. These bodies have been here for a few days." Chris stepped back looking at the rows upon rows of neatly placed bodies.

I looked down at each of the bodies and could help be left with questions. I had seen and done terrible things to people when I had been out on the street, but I had never in my life seen anything like this. Finally, I found the words coming out of my mouth. "How long do you think these bodies have been here?"

Chris looked over at me for a second a look of fear in his eyes had now turned to shock. "I would say maybe a week to a week and half. Not factoring in the fact that these bodies have been out in the elements."

"Jesus". I heard Tessa say as she stepped away from the pit.

I looked over to see Chris take a step towards the bodies. He turned and looked at both me and Tessa. "I think the government knew about the dead people, this disease for a very long time. These people were excuted. They thought they could contain this, but they failed." I watched as Chris put his jacket sleeve back up to his face.

"Why would they dump the bodies in Michigan?" I turned back to Chris hoping to fuck he would not vomit.

"Why not Michigan, it's pefect. There are areas in this state that are a hunter's paradise. There are lots of woods and places to hide things depending on where you go. I think whoever dumped these bodies here knew they were fucked and got sloppy. I think the disease was probably already out of control when this dumping happened. This was convience more then anything else. I think I have seen enough." Chris began to walk away and start to climb out of the pit. As he pulled himself up and out of the pit he stood and looked in the distance.

"OH, SHIT! Get out of the fucking pit now." I could see the blood drain out of Chris's face.

I looked over all the way to the end of the rows of the bodies to see the dead falling into the pit and making their way slowly through the rows of the actual dead towards us.


End file.
